Acres Field, Murston. The coffin was afterwards melted down and used for
sealing up the gas-mains of Sittingbourne (G. Payne, Coll. Cant. 43
; C. R. Smith, Coll. Ant. vii, 190).
(7) South-east of this site and 250 yds. west of Tonge Vicarage, a
number of vessels associated with ‘burnt bones were found and largely
destroyed by clay-diggers. Some at least of the pottery which included a
crater (form ii) alleged to be of Arretine, but possibly rather of South
Gaulish fabric, dates from the earliest years of the Roman occupation (see
Antiq. Journ. vi, 309, Journ. R. Studies, xiv, 239).
(8) Rather more than a mile to the east of Sittingbourne, adjoining
the highway, a few Roman graves mostly of the 1st century A.D. have been
found at Bapchild. Pottery, probably from a grave group, found in 1929,
included a small green-glazed jug of St. Remy ware and of mid 1st century
‘date (in Rochester Museum) (P1. XV, no.1). Earlier discoveries occurred
mostly at Batfield within the parish. Coins reputed to have been
found here include those of Faustina II, Gallienus, Tetricus, Maximianus,
Constantine I, and Arcadius. Roach Smith noticed fragments of Roman tiles
here about and to the eastward at the foot of Radfield Hill coins and
potsherds are described as being constantly turned up (G. Payne, Coll.
Cant. 88).
(9) Lastly, nearly one mile west of Sittingbourne, where the
parish of Borden impinges upon the Watling Street at the site of
the former turnpike gate-house, yet another cemetery has come. to light.
It lay to the south of the road and had, in part at least, been inclosed
within a stone boundary wall, fragments of which (‘a rotten flint wall running east and west,
and turning at right angles to the road at each of its extremities‘)
were found about 1882. Within the inclosure was the base of a circular
‘tower ‘ 11½ ft. in diameter, doubtless the foundation of a
monumental tomb; it was built of flint rubble with walls 5½ ft.
thick, and upon the floor was a ‘ shallow tank, 7 ft. square and one
foot deep, paved with Roman tiles.’ Between the tower and the road three
skeletons and much debris were encountered. Other interments included an
urn-buria1, a second cremation-burial in a circular leaden cist and a
leaden coffin, elaborately decorated with cable-pattern. This coffin was
4½
ft.. long and lay at a depth of 7 ft. with the head towards the west. It
contained the remains of a child about six years old, accompanied by armlets
of jet and gold and a gold finger-ring of late 3rd- or 4th-century
type. Outside the coffin, at the foot, was a vase of Castor ware, whilst at
the head was an earthenware jug and ‘a cup of fine, white, transparent
glass ornamented with round lozenges, similar to a tall modern ale glass
‘ (G. Payne, Coll. Cant. 54 ; C. R. Smith, Coll. Ant. vii,
186; for the type of vessel, see J. Ward, The Roman Fort of Gellypaer, Fig.16). For similar walled cemeteries see under Springhead, p.
91, East Barming, p. 145, Lockham, pp. 144, 158, and Keston, p. 119). In
the Dover Museum are many objects from Sittingbourne, including coarse
pottery, two Samian saucers stamped SVOBNIM and
REGINVS.F, an Upchurch
saucer imitating a Samian shape, complete with bogus stamp, a huge urn,
bits of bronze, a spur (? Roman) and glass beads.
8. MAIDSTONE
An obviously Roman road points southwards from Rochester to
the great easterly bend in the Medway at Maidstone. At such a point a local
concentration of the Romano-British population was almost
inevitable. As
so often the case in Kent, the traces of this population, though abundant
enough, do not carry us far towards a reconstruction of the Roman
settlement. A road (see p.138), two rather widely separated stone
buildings, a considerable number of burials, and many stray discoveries of
potsherds and other relics form the sum total of the material at present
available. They are just sufficient to suggest that Roman Maidstone,
again like other minor Kentish settlements, consisted of small nucleus
of moderately prosperous farmers settled amidst or adjoining a
considerable
peasant population quartered in hutments that have left not a wrack
behind. Let us emphasize this point. In our notes we must remember throughout that, in speaking of Roman Maidstone, we are isolating
somewhat arbitrarily a unit which in Roman times may have had no real corporate
entity. All along the Medway valley, at least as far south as Teston,88
nearly 4 miles above Maidstone, are remains of Roman ‘villas‘
and cemeteries and other evidences of Roman occupation. Amongst these,
Maidstone has no more than
88 See Villas and Topographical Index under Allington, Boxley, East
Farleigh, East Barming, Teston, etc.
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