In 2010 Canterbury Archaeological Trust carried out an evaluation at the site of 149-156 Snargate Street. Deposits were found relating to dumped material overlying beach shingle, dating from the 17th or 18th century when the area was first developed as part of the expansion of Dover town. Remains of buildings were found, again of 17th or 18th century date, though truncated by later 19th century structures, one of which was probably the Invicta public house. (1)

Further test trenching was carried out by Canterbury Archaeological Trust at the site in 2014, this work uncovered cellars associated with no. 149, 150, 152, 153, 154 and 155 Snargate Street. These cellars were between 1.5m and 2m deep and had been infilled. A number of post medieval walls were also located. Geotechnical boreholes excavated in March 2014 during a watching brief by Canterbury Archaeological Trust revealed the 19th century cellars at the site in greater detail. (2)

A third and final stage of archaeological investigation was undertaken at the site between January and March in 2016 by PCA. This work revealed further information about the properties which formerly fronted onto Snargate Street in this location in the post medieval period, including information about the basement of 152. Two structural elements of this basement survived consisting of the southern and northern walls. Both walls extended beyond the eastern and western limits of the trench and were recorded in a north-west to south-east alignment, perpendicular to Snargate Street. The walls were of ashlar chalk blocks with occasional unfrogged red bricks set in mortar, they enclosed an area which had a maximum width of 4m and a minimum length of 5.2m with a maximum depth of. The northern wall of the basement was actually the southern face of a wide wall the northern face of which was part of the basement next door (153). The core of the wall was obscured by a concrete beam that ran across the top of both the faces but a combined thickness of 1m was recorded. A sondage was excavated in the southern wall, this encountered a deposit of friable dark grey, sandy clayey chalk containing a fragment of 17th century clay tobacco pipe near the bottom of the sequence. (3)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2010, Report on evaluation trenching at Nos 149−156 Snargate Street, Dover (Unpublished document). SKE18229.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2014, Report on a watching brief at Nos 149-156 Snargate Street, Dover, March 2014 (Unpublished document). SKE29383.

<3> PCA - Shane Maher, 2016, 149-156 Snargate Street, Dover, Kent - An Archaeological Assessment (Unpublished document). SKE32330.