A watching brief was maintained in January, 1996 and again in March, 1996 during the excavation of trial pits against the curtain wall of Canterbury Prison, Longport, at the rear of St Augustine's Session House (January, 1996) and the construction work for the rebuilding of the curtain wall itself (March, 1996).

The first watching brief during January, 1996 consisted of Two trial pits were excavated to a depth of around 1.8m and appeared to lie entirely within the fill of modern features, with natural brickearth not seen in either trench.

The second watching brief during March, 1996 uncovered a substantial feature, probably of Roman date was observed: natural brickearth was recorded at the east end of the trench at a depth of 1.8m, but at a distance of 14m from the east end, a NS aligned linear cut of 1m width extending down into the natural brickearth was observed. This linear feature crossed the trench, but was not excavated to its full depth nor was its full extent known as this lay beyond the limits of the trench. The cut of the linear feature was filled with large angular flints and Roman brick in a a silty clay and appeared to be a robbed out wall footing. To the west of the linear feature, a thick layer of redeposited brickearth mixed with Roman brick and tile fragments was observed. This was interpreted as a possible levelling layer within the structure represented by the robbed wall. The western limit of the redeposited brickearth could not be determined as it appeared to come to an end around 4m from the robbed wall. No other structural remains were observed.

Jarman, C., 1997, HM Prison, Longport (Article in serial). SKE30349.