Burials
In addition to the human remains found in the recesses beneath the cloister bench, previously described, indications of three other burials occurred in the church and north walk of the cloister.
   1. In the eastern bay of the north aisle of the nave part of a robbed stone-lined grave occurred as indicated by the letter G on the plan. Associated with it was a fragment of a crocheted pinnacle bearing traces of red painted decoration and gilding. Most probably this came from a late-medieval tomb and its siting in the centre of the aisle immediately in front of the position normally occupied by an altar suggests that this was the burial place of someone of considerable importance.
   2. Inside the sleeper wall of the north arcade of the late-medieval presbytery were disturbed bones of an adult with no other associations (marked G on plan).
   3. At the east end of the north walk of the cloister, in front of the doorway into the south transept, was a marble gravestone, the upper (western) part missing, covering the remains of an adult skeleton. The stone was 2 ft. 1 in. wide at its foot and its incomplete length was 3 ft. 9 in., its original length being estimated at not less than 6 ft. The broken

APPENDIX

                           The Excavation of 1846
As mentioned in the introduction, a partial excavation of the Priory was made in 1846 and a note on its results was published in J.B.A.A. for the year following. This has provided the basis for the few published references which have appeared subsequently, and in the light of the latest evidence is seen to call for some qualification. Information about the circumstances of the investigation is contained in Sir Charles Igglesden's A Saunter Through Kent With Pen and Pencil, viii (1908), 53-4. He obtained his facts from a retired policeman named Henry Gibbons who was born at Leeds in 1834 and lived there as a boy. His uncle, David Gibbons, a local builder, was employed to carry out the digging paid for by the owner of Leeds Castle, Charles Wykeham-Martin, the initiative being provided by the farmer, John Sweetlove, who was interested in antiquarian matters. Apparently,

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