Saltwood Tunnel (North of), ARC SLT 98
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2004. (updated 2017) https://doi.org/10.5284/1044752. How to cite using this DOI
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Stuart
Foreman
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Oxford Archaeology (South)
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 1836
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1044752
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
Between January 1999 and March 1999 Canterbury Archaeological Trust Ltd (CAT) was commissioned by Union Railways (South) Ltd (URS) to undertake detailed archaeological investigations on a suspected Roman settlement north of Saltwood Tunnel, north of the village of Saltwood, Kent. This work formed part of an extensive programme of archaeological investigation carried out in advance of the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
The investigation produced evidence for a long lived though dispersed settlement commencing in the early Iron Age and continuing through to the early or Middle Saxon period, a span of a millennium from the sixth century BC to the sixth or seventh century AD. A discrete area of early medieval occupation succeeded this in the central zone.
The earliest activity on the site would appear to be a limited zone of Early Iron Age occupation situated at the head of a dry combe in the south-west part of the site, this activity partly masked by later phases extending into the early Roman period. By the later Iron Age formation of the hollow way in the combe necessitated the cutting of drains and the initial metalling of the surface, especially in the area of the junction with another ditched roadway approaching from the south-east. Beyond the junction of these roadways on the north edge of the site, close to the line of the M20, their continuations to north-east and north-west had been truncated by the road cutting. Certain sections of the hollow way were bordered by dry-stone wall footings set in the side of the ditches bordering them.
Within the angles of this road system to east and west were enclosures which had passed through stages of enlargement and re-definition. That to the east in particular had seen, during the Iron Age, the cutting of two arcing lines of ditch as successive boundaries near the road junction before the creation of a more rectilinear enclosure in the Roman period. Within this a small cremation cemetery of the late first century AD had been established, the enclosure also containing two more of late second-century date and a solitary inhumation cutting a pit containing metal-working debris. The western enclosure extended back from the existing area of settlement and passed through several stages of elaboration.
During the later Roman period a dense deposit of silt and occupation debris accumulated in the hollow way, filling the earlier ditches and a soakaway pit at the junction. A ditch was thereafter cut through the silts along the uphill side of the western hollow way, co-terminus with a length of dry-stone wall still extant. This contained residual late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon pottery. Opposite, an oven containing fourth-century pottery cut the hollow way silts. At the far east end of the site a sunken-floored building with timber roof supports could also be dated to the early Anglo-Saxon period from pottery within it.
Later Anglo-Saxon activity was absent but in the early medieval period a small settlement was established immediately west of and overlying the silted hollow way junction. This was delimited by slight ditches on the south-east and the south-west, with further sections of ditch continuing north-west off the site. Within this area small pits, post-holes and a trench or gully suggested the location of structures. A series of parallel trenches to the west may have defined a series of strip fields; a pit in this area produced oyster shells and fish remains. Finds generally dated to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
There was little sign of later medieval or post-medieval activity here or in the vicinity but the depth of overlying subsoil may suggest deep ploughing prior to the erection of structures associated with an army camp of the First World War. Subsequently field drains were laid in the eastern area followed by the laying of service trenches during the Second World War.
There were several phases of work at Saltwood Tunnel as part of CTRL phase 1: An archaeological evaluation (ARC SLT 97), excavation of the cemetery area (ARC SLT 98C), and excavation of the land in between (ARC SLT 99).
N.B. Much of this work here has been superseeded by works associated with the Phase Two and Schemewide programmes, but are included here for completeness. Those wishing to use the most current data are urged to view the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Section 1 Project pages.
