Old Romney - the search for the early medieval port

During September 1991 a large area to the east and north of Old Romney was field-walked. The work was initiated by the Romney Marsh Research Trust and funded jointly by the Trust and English Heritage. We are most grateful to Mr Gordon Finn-Kelsey for permission to walk across his fields.

For many centuries it has been conjectured that Old Romney was the former site of the early medieval port of Romney. As the estuary silted up, it has been suggested, the port may have moved to the site of the present town at New Romney. To examine the evidence for this, an area to the east and north of Old Romney church was field-walked. An area of 198 hectares (about 800 acres) was examined by detailed field-walking. Detailed analysis of the results has yet to be completed, but a preliminary examination suggests that most of the pottery discovered comes from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Smaller quantities of earlier pottery were found nearer the church, which may point to the site of the Saxon and Norman port.

Other elements of the survey which are currently in progress are an examination of aerial photographs of the area and a consideration of the documentary evidence. Old Romney is described in a detailed survey of 1552, from which the geography of the land around the church can be reconstructed. There were then six houses close to the church, and the sites of eleven or twelve others are also mentioned, although the buildings had been demolished by that date. Evidently, the village of Old Romney was contracting during the first half of the sixteenth century.

[fg]png|Old Romney 1552|Image[/fg]

[fg]png|Buildings in Old Romney 1992|Image[/fg]

The work will continue in 1992 with an examination of the pottery from the field-walking and further consideration of documentary sources.

Mark Gardiner
Field Archaeology Unit, University College of London