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ASH (near Sevenoaks).—Villa, p. 103. The
Dartford Antiquarian Society examined foundations at North Ash in 1914,
which were probably those of the villa.
ASHFORD.—A burial group was found in 1896 in excavating for
the foundations of a house in Albert Road. It consisted of a large urn
containing calcined bones, a Samian plate 7½ in. in diameter, an Upchurch
plate 6½. in. in diameter, an indented cup of thin red ware with a fluted
rim, a red jug with handle, a red cup, and fragments of three other
vessels. [Arch. Cant. xxii, proc. p. lviii.] Two brooches bought at
Ashford were said to have been found there. [Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. ii
(1847), 186.] Another burial was found in 1929 in widening the south side
of the London by-pass road at Potter’s Corner, a mile north-west of
Ashford; the pottery included a Samian ink-pot, a cup of form 33, and 18
gold coins or discs.’ [Journ. of R. Studies, xix, 210.]
AYLESFORD.—Buildings near Kits Coty and Eccles, see p. 104,
no. 3. Several burial urns were found in 1921 on the high ground between
the village and The Friars, but they were broken by the workmen who
found them. [Fragment in Maidstone Mus. Inf. from Mr. H. J. Elgar.] A
section of a Roman road could be seen in 1911 in a clay pit half a mile
north of New Hythe Ferry; this road was undoubtedly connected with the
settlements at Eccles and Burham (q.v.). [Rochester Naturalist, vi,
130, p. 52.] At Little Preston, on the south side of the Medway, two small
urns were found, one containing a brooch; they are now in the Kent. Arch.
Soc. Museum. Forty blocks of lead, probably net-sinkers, were found in
Preston Hall Park, also on the south side of the river, but their Roman
date is uncertain. (One block is in the Kent Arch Soc. Museum.) See also
Boxley, Burham, Larkfield, and Eccles.
BAPCHILD.—See Sittingbourne, p. 98 (8).
BARHAM.—The age of the earthwork here is uncertain, but
probably it is not Roman, in spite of the fact that a coin of Tiberius was
found on the north-west side. Only a few Roman objects have occurred among
the contents of the many barrows in this neighbourhood. A Samian vessel
and two saucers inscribed P and * (and therefore thought to represent
Christian symbols) were found in a brickfield near Breach Downs in 1870.
In the barrows, mostly belonging to the large Saxon cemetery, opened on
Kingston Downs by Faussett in 1767—1773, coins of Claudius (much
worn and with a hole in it), Carausius, Allectus, and Constantine I were
found; and in 60 barrows excavated by Lord Albert Conyngham on Breach
Downs, only a single coin of Victorinus occurred. [Faussett, Invent.
Sepul. (1856), passim; C. R. Smith, Coll. Antiqua, i, 7;
Numis. Chron. vii (1844), 192.] In the Mayer Collection in
Liverpool Free Public Museum is a Samian saucer stamped OF
CAII found in
grave No. 178. A small bronze statuette, perhaps of a priest, from Barham
is now in Canterbury Museum. In making a road across the Downs about 1840,
a cist containing human remains and ‘about 30 worn denarii of the reign
of Antoninus’ were found. - [Arch. xxx, 54.]
BARMING.—Villas, see p. 104. (I) A walled cemetery was
found at East Barming at the end of the 18th century to the north of the
road leading from the village to the church, on the sloping northern bank
of the Medway, and about 250 yds. north-east of the villa, opened at the
same time. The walls were thickly and rudely built of Kentish ragstone and
strong mortar and were 3 ft. high and levelled at the top. They enclosed a
rectangular space measuring 30 yds. by
10 yds., with an entrance 3½ ft. wide in the east end of the south wall.
Inside this area a rude brown urn containing burnt bones was found at the
depth of the foundation wall on the south side. Outside the north wall
three pieces of red grit stone were dug up: the larger piece measured 2
ft. 4 in. long, 2 ft. 3 in. broad at the top, and 2 ft. at the bottom and
5½. in. thick; the second piece was about 2 ft. square and 11 in. thick
in the middle; the third was 1 ft. 7 in. tong, 1 ft. 9½ in. broad, and
slightly thinner than the second. The first was lost, but the two latter,
in 1848, were on the north side of the churchyard. They were all
ornamented with a conventional palm-tree pattern, the first piece across
its breadth, and as they were of a convex shape, were thought to form part
of the lid and side of a stone coffin. The palm-tree ornamentation was
thought to indicate a Christian burial, but it is a common device
occurring on pre Christian tombs. [Account by B. Poste with drawing of red grit stone pieces,
and by Mr. Noble
in C.R. Smith Coll. Antiq. i, 183—203.] (II) A second cemetery
was dug up in 1797 in a field nearly ¼ mile north-west of the Rectory and
half a mile north-east of the first, north of the villa and perhaps to be
connected with it. It contained black and red urns, some nearly 2 ft.
high, among them 7 complete vessels, a quantity of human ashes and part of
a skull. At a little distance away were more bones and ashes, but no urns.
[Mr. Noble’s account in C. R. Smith, Coll. Antiq. i, 195.]
BAYFORD.—See Sittingbourne, p. 97.
BEAKESBOURNE.—A curious shaft was discovered 13 ft. below the surface in
digging the cutting for the railway on Beakesbourne Hill in 1858. It
contained a wooden structure, 12 ft. high and 3¼ ft. square internally,
built of heavy oak beams, i ft. square, and oak planks; no iron was
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