During excavations associated with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in 2002/3 (ARC SHN02) a late 2nd century Roman stone temple was discovered. Coin evidence suggested that the temple was constructed in c. AD 180/190 and demolished a century or so later. The temple was c. 14m x 8m in size. The temple was aligned at right angles to Watling Street with the entrance facing south-east and was built in two phases of construction. The central part of the building may have been re-used after the main period of demolition. The walls survived to a height of c. 0.5m and consisted of flint nodules and chalk set in lime mortar.

The entrance had a vestibule with four entrances. Evidence of tiled flooring, painted wall plaster (with green and red paint and now conserved in-situ), was found. Outside the temple a series of fence lines defined the temenos. A number of pits and post-holes lay south of the temple and two hearths north of the fence that was itself north of the temple. In the corner of the temenos enclosure was a neonatal burial inside a storage vessel and a possible second neonatal burial was close by.

When the temple was demolished at the end of the 3rd century the tiled floor was removed and the plaster stripped before demolition. Much of the demolition rubble was used to create a platform in the middle of the temple and this seems to have remained in use, perhaps into the mid-4th century (based on coin evidence). Two more neonatal burials may have been found here. The temple site is the only area of the Springhead excavations where late 4th/early 5th century pottery was found and the excavators suggest that like at Lullingstone and some other villas, the temple may have remained a focus of activity even after the abandonment of the wider site.

Two ovens lay to the west of the temenos. These produced mid-Roman pottery. (1)

The temple was preserved in-situ below the new slip road at a shallow depth beneath shingle.

Location accurate to 2m based on available information

<1> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2010, Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley. CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent. The Late Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval Landscape (Monograph). SKE31245.