A small trench was dug in 1951 by The Canterbury Excavation Committee to the NW of the present 1-2 Marlowe Arcade. The Trench was coded CXX EXIII. This revealed what appeared to be a courtyard, consisting of a hard surface of two layers of rammed gravel probably laid in the late first/early second century.
The metalling itself was selaed by a loose mortar spread, possibly the floor of a house which had encroached upon it. Above this was a deposit of dirty grey sandy soil in which a sherd of Rhenish beaker was found.
There was much disturbance in the centre of the trench and a Medieval pit had destroyed part of the metalling; but there was evidence that in the late second century it was bordered on this side by a building with a loam floor into which a hearth was cut. A coin of Faustina II (145-61) and a sherd of Hadrianic-Antonine samian was found in the floor, while several sherds of Antonine samian together with two potters stamps of Hadrianic-Antonine date were found in the layer of dirty loam above it, together course wares of the early third century. The floor overlay an occupation deposit yielding several courseware sherds of the period 150-80 AD.

Frere, S., Bennett, P., Rady, J., Stow, S., 1987, Excavations Intra- and Extra-mural Sites 1949-55 and 1980-84 (Monograph). SKE29800.