to think, is slag of pre-Roman type, though it may have been utilized by the Romans as road metal.¹²  For supplies of lead, Kent had to rely on State mines elsewhere in Britain. A partly used pig of lead, inscribed with the name of the Emperor Nerva, was found at Richborough,¹³  though there is nothing to indicate from which district it came.
   A series of clay crucibles of various shapes and sizes, for smelting, found in the Strood cemetery (see p. 169) are now in Maidstone Museum; and, finally, we may mention a kiln which was found in 1929 under the western alley of the medieval cloister at St. Augustine’s, Canterbury,¹⁴  and which may possibly have been used for bronze-smelting.
   Bricks, and tiles for roofing, flooring, and wall construction, must have been manufactured on a large scale. No definite remains of tile kilns are recorded,¹⁵  but the Medway valley and the coastal zone of North Kent, where the necessary brick-earth and clay are located, were doubtless important centres. Bricks and tiles were also made from Gault clay; and traces of a building of gault bricks were recorded by Spurrell in Sharfleet Creek.¹⁶  A series of box tiles, found in the Plaxtol villa, and now in Maidstone Museum, as already recorded,¹⁶  a is stamped with the maker’s advertising slogan in Latin.
   A consideration of this coarse pottery naturally leads to the subject of finer wares and their manufacture, and it will be convenient to give a list of the remains of kilns found in Kent before proceeding to a more detailed account of the sites in the Medway marshes that have been regarded for many years past as potteries.
   (1) The remains of a small pit, largely destroyed, were excavated in the earthwork at Charlton by Mr. F. C. Elliston Erwood. It was about 4 ft. in diameter, and sunk 1 ft. below the level of the adjacent occupation floor, and the bottom was lined with blackened flints embedded in burnt clay and mixed with fragments of burnt wood. The pit seemed to have been lined with unburnt clay, and in it were a few lumps of sandstone which had evidently been subjected to great heat, the surface becoming partly glazed.¹⁷  Part of a clay bar was also met with in the same excavations; it may perhaps be a furnace bar from a pottery kiln, but similar bars are found in the Red Hills sites.
    (2) Fragments of coarse, ill-fired, red pottery have been found on Broomy (or Bromhey) Farm, Cooling, in the Hundred of Hoo. It was at first thought that they were debris from a potter’s oven, but subsequent investigation made it clear that they were fragments of briquetage derived from a site analogous to those of the Red Hills of Essex.¹⁸
   (3) A Roman pottery at Dymchurch is indicated on the map in George Payne’s archaeological survey of Kent published in 1889, but no reference is made to the discoveries. In 1846, mention was made of Roman pottery
   ¹²  It occurs with La Tène III pottery at Saxonbury Camp. Sussex Arch. Coll. lxxi, 228.
   ¹³  Richborough I, p. 42.
   ¹⁴  W. F. Grimes, Y Cymmrodor, xli, 72; above p. 74, no. 26.
   ¹⁵  There are several ‘Tile Fields,’ but the tiles are more likely to be debris from buildings. Tiles have been found in large quantities in the Thames off Northfleet, and there is record of a doubtful kiln site at Margate. The discoveries at East Farleigh (see Top. Index) may indicate tile-making.
   ¹⁶  Arch. Journ. xlii, 278.
   ^16a  See above, p. 123.
   ¹⁷  Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. N.S. xxii, 161 ; for the village, see p. 101.
   ¹⁸  Rochester Naturalist, No. 131, vol. vi, 105; Arch. Cant. xlii, Report, p. xlvi.