Excavation at Broomhill

The medieval church of Broomhill became redundant in the early 16th century, having been inundated by the sea and buried beneath a metre of silt. With the kind permission of the farmer, A. H. Cooke and Sons, excavation of the church site began in 1985, on the evidence of a dense scatter of tiles, slate, flint and masonry in the field. In three seasons areas in and around the church have been sampled. The walls of the church survive at least 0. 3 m high beneath the ploughsoil. Pieces of stained glass window have been found, and a notable feature was a grafitto ship etched on the plaster on the inside of the south wall. Plans of the church and churchyard have been outlined by resistivity survey. An interim report will be published in the forthcoming monograph Romney Marsh: Evolution, Occupation, and Reclamation.

A summary of the work carried out in 1987

Mark Gardiner

A third season of excavation on Broom hill church ( TQ 9879 1945 J was directed by M. F. Gardiner (Field Archaeology Unit, Institute of Archaeology) and work on the sedimentary sequence carried out by Dr. M. J. Tooley (University of Durham). Excavation of the church building itself concentrated on elucidating its structural history. The junction of the nave and chancel on the south side of the church was examined. The chancel was of different construction to the nave and was not bonded to it.

Though the chancel butted on to the nave it appeared that the two were nearly contemporary. The construction and upkeep of the chancel was the responsibility of the clergy, but the expense of the nave fell on the parishioners and the two parts may have been built under separate contracts.

The south aisle was examined and was shown to be contemporary with the remainder of the nave and not a later addition, as had been suggested by earlier work. The base of an altar in the south aisle chapel and nave was identified in the sediment which filled the church.

On the south side of the church a portion of stained glass window was found where it had fallen in the sixteenth century in wet sediments. It was lifted and removed for conservation at the Institute of Archaeology.

Evidence for the collapse of the church was found nearby at the south-west corner of the nave where a buttress had fallen at the time when the church was partially submerged in the sixteenth century.

A second trench sectioned the churchyard wall on the north side of the church to examine the sedimentary sequence. A complex series of deposits was recorded, dating from the initial shingle deposition attributed to the Bronze Age. In the swales between the shingle banks peat formed, and this in turn was overlain by sand. Traces of medieval occupation predating the churchyard wall were found and a shell midden and a deposit with carbonised seeds were sampled.

Work by Dr. Tooley and at the Institute of Archaeology is continuing to examine these sediments and aims to establish an environmental sequence and history of human activity in the area. A large scale resistivity survey was planned for winter 1987-8 to plan the underlying shingle ridges and to locate a second building near the church which is suggested by mortared stones brought to the surface by recent ploughing.

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