A watching brief was undertaken in July 1983 during the construction of a new house in the back garden of Nos. 1 and 2 Oaten Hill Court.

Elements of two late Medieval chalk-block-constructed cellars and a wall foundation possibly associated with St. Sepulchre's Nunnery were exposed. This site had been extensively disturbed in more recent times; no stratigraphy associated with the masonry structures was found and only the deep cut features survived.

Both cellars had mortared chalk block walls rendered on the internal faces with lime-washed plaster. The SW cellar backfill, a one-period dump of disturbed brickearth and loam, overlay a deposit of yellow sand which may have been a bedding for a tiled floor ( a number of broken yellow glazed floor-tiles were recovered from the cellar backfill). The NE cellar had remained in use into the 17th century and was finally backfilled with domestice rubbish and hardcore in 19th century. The wall foundation was of a contemporary build with the second cellar and was made of crushed chalk, it is possible that it may have been for a building incorporating the cellar at its SW end. (1)

A stone pad recorded 1.6m below the ground surface marked the floor of the first cellar, with the second cellar measuring 2.25m below the ground surface. A barrel vaulted roof also survived within the second cellar. (2)

<1> Bennett, P., 1987, No. 1 Oaten Hill Court, in The Archaeology of Canterbury, Vol VIII; Canterbury Exacavtions Intra- and Extra-mural Sites 1949-55 and 1980-84 (Article in serial). SKE30441.

<2> Pegasus Group, 2017, FORMER ATC SITE COSSINGTON ROAD, CANTERBURY BUILT HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL DESK-BASED ASSESSMENT (Unpublished document). SKE55907.