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the discoverer and is briefly described as being oval
in shape, 5 ft. in diameter, and 3 ft. 8 in. high. About 1885 Mr.
Spurrell met a railway ganger who was present when the structure was dug
out.26 He, however, described it as circular in shape,
and said that it was made of coarse clay and full of small pieces of
pottery. There were no indications of bones.
Just over one mile east of Hoo Junction is the hamlet of
Higham or Church Street, and here, in 1849, in a field near the church,
much Roman debris was said to cover an area of some four acres to a depth
of 3 ft.27 Among the discoveries were lumps of clay mixed
with a metallic substance which were regarded as refuse from a kiln.
(6) A pottery kiln was discovered on the villa at Otford (see
above, p. 122) in 1928. It was oval in shape, with a length of just over 6
ft., and although the oven floor was missing, the pilaster supports of
ironstone slabs and mortar remained along the long sides. The pottery,
mostly jugs of red ware, was of 1st-century type, and the kiln seems to
have fallen into disuse circa 100 A.D. The kiln belongs to Grimes’s
Type iii.28
(7) A pottery kiln containing typical examples of
Upchurch pottery was found at Springhead during the road-widening
operations along Watling Street in 1921-1922 (P1. XXVII). Unfortunately,
the kiln was badly damaged by the workmen before its significance was
realized. It measured 3 ft. 8 in. in diameter, and the walls, which were
lined with clay and straw, remained to a height of about 13 in.29
Possibly the oven floor had no permanent support, but rested on a
framework of wood which burnt away as the clay floor hardened with the
heat ; the flues or fire tunnels were not observed.
(8) Some years previously another kiln was found on Watling
Street at Stonewood on the west side of Swanscombe Hill. The discovery was
published privately and little is known about it except that the kiln was
afterwards used as a rubbish tip.30
(9) A pottery kiln was found 5 ft. below ground level by men
removing callow off the chalk at Galley Hill, Swanscombe, in 1904. (P1.
XXVII). It was 3 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and the walls, lined with burnt
clay and straw, remained to a depth of 13˝ in.; no signs of any internal
structure were noticed, though the fire tunnel appears in the photograph,
and possibly the kiln was of the same type as that at Springhead. Roman
refuse was found close by.31
(10) Some years after 1872 on Dearson Farm, Wingham, Mr.
George Dowker found 15 or 20 pots in a cavity in the gravel lined with
clay and straw, and clearly a pottery kiln. From the description and
illustration, it appears that the kiln was of the horizontal draught type;
there were two apertures— one probably the furnace and the other a flue—leading
to the cavity, which was shaped like a ‘soda-water bottle with a neck at
each end.’ A perfect vessel stood in one of the apertures.32 In
1872 several black urns containing burnt bones were found in the same
field, and all the finds are now in Maidstone Museum.
26 Arch. Journ. xlii,
277. This is probably the structure referred to in the British Museum Guide
to Roman Britain (1922), p. 113.
27 Arch. Cant. xi, 114; Journ.
Brit. Arch. Assoc. iv, 399.
28 See Y Cymmrodor, xli, 55, 72;
an account of it was published in Arch. Cant. xlii, 160.
29 Ant. Journ. viii, 339. See above,
p. 92.
30 W. B. Peake, Excavations on a
Romano-British Site in Stonewood (Dartford).
31 Arch. Cant. xxvii, proc. p.
lxxiii. Mr. G. M. Arnold had potsherds and a bone pin from Galley Hill.
32 Arch. Cant. xii, 47; xi, 115, cf.
above p. 125.
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