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 and later post medieval periods. Period 2, following the densely packed timber and stone buildings of the period 1 occupation of the site, there appears to have been a marked hiatus at the end of the 13th century, when the structures on most of the plots were abondoned. Only the buildings on plots B and C, situated on either side of Clarence Street were replaced by substantial new stone structures. The remaining plots apparently stood empty and deposits of soil accumulated across mcuh of the area. It is possible that the unoccupied ground was being used as gardens.

A series of stone boundary walls, formalising a number of earlier plot divisions and defining the south eastern side of Clarence Street seem to have been first constructed during period 2. from their positioning it would appear that plots E, F and G from period one had been enclosed to form a single large walled area, almost square in plan. A cellared building has subsequently been erected on its north eastern side. Plot H appears to have been walled off separately.

There was no clear evidence to suggest why particular plots continued to be occupied while others were abandoned. The general change from timber to stone, or at least stone footed, houses is a well established phenomenon in many Medieval towns in the 13th century, and such a general development has previously been at Dover at the site of Queen Street and Bench Street. (1)

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