COUNTRY HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS

   Traces of 47 Romano-British buildings have been recorded in Kent, Many more must have been found and several others will doubtless be discovered. But of these 47, only 13 (11 houses, one temple and one other possible temple) have been explored in part and only 8 completely excavated; the traces of 10 are so slight that examination may prove them not to be buildings at all.²  The remaining 16 are undoubtedly buildings, but the recorded remains are insufficient to assume that more than ten of them belong to houses.³  If the eleven excavated houses are added to these, in all there are only 21 country houses known for certain in Kent. Of the 11 houses explored, one (no.17) was certainly built facing on to a large open courtyard, and at one period part of it was given up to the industry of dyeing and fulling; three others (nos. 28, 33, 34) show signs of a court or farmyard; two belong to the corridor type of house, one (no.10) with a verandah along the front, the other (no. 22) with wings; one (no. 2) appears to be a ‘ barn’ type with living-rooms at one end, and another about half its size is more like a cottage with a very efficient hot- or bath-room. Three (nos. 9, 39, 46) are bath-buildings, but probably were connected with stone or timber houses. An unusual feature in connexion with one or two houses is to be found in the family tombs, as at Keston (no. 33 and Folkestone⁴  (no. 23), and burials occur at others. Kent does not thus add much to the history of the development of the Romano-British house.
   With regard to the geographical position of the houses, the sites at Greenwich, Aylesford, and Burham may prove to be temple-sites, but the greater number (14) are in the Medway valley or on its slopes stretching from Cuxton to Plaxtol—the richest land of Kent; in addition to these there is the large group centring round Maidstone, which has therefore been regarded as the focus of the most thickly populated part of Roman Kent and is treated separately (see p. 98). The Darenth valley accounts for eight and the Cray valley and its upper slopes for six. Only one has been found in the Stour valley. Nine occur along the London road or between it and the Medway marshes; two on the Richborough road; two on and near the road to Lympne; and three on the coast—two at Folkestone, one at Margate. None occur in the Weald or in any part of the south-west.
   The evidence for dating the building or the occupation of the houses is very slight. Coins or datable objects are recorded only in nineteen cases. Even so, it is remarkable that first-century coins are more common than is usual in country houses; at three sites, indeed, all in the Medway valley and not far from Aylesford, as one might expect, pre-Roman coins as well as coins of Claudius, Nero and Vespasian have been found; at eight others, first-century coins occurred (four of them coins of Claudius). The occupation
   ¹  This section has been compiled by Miss M. V. Taylor.
   ²  To these, perhaps, should be added the discoveries at Mereworth, Charing, Deal, Halstead, etc. (see Topographical Index).
   ³  The existence of flue tiles has been regarded a certain evidence of a bath and therefore of a house.
   ⁴  Cf. also the tombs at Lockham (see Topographical Index).