Summarised from source:

During excavations undertaken by Canterbury Archaeological Trust, ahead of the rebuilding of the Townwall Street filling Station, Dover, a complex series of stratified archaeological deposits were revealed representing activity at the site between the early Medieval period through to the later post medieval period. Following the superficial activity of Period 0, intensive colonisation of the Townnwall Street site began sometime during the late 12th century. A series of building plots was established, each occpied by a succession of timber structures. Running north-east by south-west across the north-western side of the site was a 4-6m wide strip of unoccupied land and may be readily equated with the line of the throughfare which eventually became known as Clarence Street.

The building remains preserved on the various plots mostly consist of a complex series of floors, mainly composed of rammed chalk or occasionally clay, in excess of 200 individual floor surfaces were recorded. These were variously associated with rubble dwarf walls, timber beam slots, small pits, post holes, stake holes, ovens and hearths. Most of the floors appear to have become quickly buried under later surfaces and make up deposits. This implies intensive activity across the site and it would seem that the buildings had been densly packed and rebuilt a significant number of times approximately on the same plot. There was clear evidence that at least two of the buildings were destroyed by a fire on different occasions, although neither conflagration seems to have spread into the adjacent plots.

The occupation layers which overlay most of the floors contained a variety of domestic rubbish and household items, including broken pottery, fish and animal bones, lamps and iron knives, hones and gaming pieces. Burials of new born infants were unexpectedly discovered in buildings 7 and 33. all this evidence must indicate that the bulk of the excavated buildings were domestic dwellings rather than work sheds or industrial structures. However, finds such as quern stones, bone and antler waste, spindle whorls and glas slickstones indicate that various cottage crafts were undertaken at the site. Bread and beer production, small scale amber, bone and antler working and textile manufacture are all implied, from the bone evidence however, the most important industrial activity carried out on the site was connected with the preparation and processing of fish.

A tentative number of 41 building have been identified on the site for period 1, though this does not represent the full sequence (some buildings may remian un-investigated due to lying below the level affected by the filling station works)

<1> Keith Parfitt, Barry Corke and John Cotter, 2006, Townwall Street, Dover: Excavations 1996 (Monograph). SKE31840.