Cover & Intro Swale

To the south the estate is bounded by Watling Street (called in AD 1209 ‘Key Street’) and to the west by Faversham Creek. To the north beyond Thorne Key, further marshland may have been available to the Roman estate. The area thus defined is some 1,580 acres (639 hectares). Attention must be drawn to the fact that a further Roman building is located at Clapgate Springs, to the east of Faversham. Certainly, at least two Victorian writers mention a ‘Roman villa’ at Clapgate. Field- walking by the Swale Survey Team (and others) suggest, that there is a Roman building, with tiled roofs and hypocaust heating, on the west bank above Clapgate Spring. Blacklands, Ewell Farm Roman Site (Site Code 231) “Here it will suffice to observe that at Black Lands, in Ewell, a mile east of Faversham, is thought, somewhat vaguely and suspiciously, to be the site of a Roman villa which was destroyed by fire” (V.C.H. Kent 3, 1932). This statement derived from 19th century sources was the only historical clue to the whereabouts of a potential Roman villa and, by inference, estate, east of Faversham. The exact whereabouts of Blacklands proved elusive. Edward Jacob writing of the School Lands at Faversham in 1774 says – “it now consists of one hundred and two acres and upwards, which lie in Ewell Field, Poynings Marsh, Ewell Ponds, and Black Lands” (Jacob 1774). The name Ewell is well known and survives today at Ewell Farm. Ewell derives from aewell, Old English for ‘river source’. The Kentish form is ewell, the West Saxon aewiell or aewyll (Gelling 1993). Three documents were used to pinpoint the exact whereabouts of Blacklands. The first was an estate map on vellum bought by the Faversham Society in 1994 and transcribed by Duncan Harrington soon after. The map, surveyed by John Wood in 1614 shows one of its fields annotated ‘Black Landes’. The second document, the rental survey of Faversham Abbey dated 1515 itemises, “Richard Martyn told of the aforsaid Abbot of Faversham as of his manor aforsaid one acre of 93 pasture adjacent to Blackland towards the east”. The third document is a parchment map, the oldest held in the Kent Archive Centre, dated 1590, “A plan of Homestall Farm, tenant Henry Saker”, made by Christopher Saxton. During Easter 1995 a small survey team spent three days field-walking and surveying the two fields of Blacklands, now divided by the London to Ramsgate railway line. For ease of identification the Blackland field to the north of the railway line will be called the ‘north field’, and the Blackland field to the south of the railway line called the ‘south field’. Large quantities of Roman building ceramics were found in the north field but in three days work only one sherd of 12th century Tyler Hill pottery. The North Field An auger survey was conducted, and initial thoughts were that a large Roman building had been located. In the early summer of 1995 a number of five metre (16.3 ft) square evaluation trenches were hand-dug. It was soon confirmed that most of the field was one huge kiln site with layers of kilns of up to two metres in depth. Pottery found in context indicates a date of the 12th century for the latest levels. It seemed that the Medieval kiln workers were re-using vast quantities of Roman building material to construct their kilns. In a further evaluation trench, a layer of charcoal left over from sieving was found some 75cm (30 in) down. Below this was a 50cm (20 in) layer of discarded and processed oyster shells. Other evaluation trenches confirmed that most of what was possibly the Medieval foreshore was covered with layers of oyster shells, charcoal waste, and Roman building debris. No further work has been done at the kilns in the north field. It is just possible the Medieval builders were re-using a Roman industrial site 94 The South Field With some questions answered by archaeology about the function of the north field attention was focused on the south field in an attempt to pinpoint the position of the Roman buildings which had obviously been dismantled to provide building material for the Medieval kiln makers. The soil was well drained arable soil, possibly forest at some stage, but now ploughed. Two ‘bald spots’ were noted almost immediately where modern ploughing had removed the ‘crown’ of soil in a colluvial action which was creeping down the slope to the still working springs of Ewell Fleet. The Swale Survey Team concentrated on these two bald spots and began to find Roman pottery, small marble multi-coloured tesserae, larger, tile-cut tessellated floor cubes, painted plaster, and large amounts of Roman building ceramics and Roman pottery A small excavation was conducted and mortared stone walls were exposed, as well as a hypocaust system constructed out of chalk blocks. The hypocaust channels were filled with fragments of multi-coloured pictorial mosaics of the best quality. Intensive field-walking located a possible Roman villa site some 300 metres to the south of the Blacklands Roman site on the south-east slope of the west bank above Ewell Farm. All of the numerous Roman villa sites located north of Watling Street as part of the Swale Archaeological Survey are to be found on a south-east slope of the west bank overlooking a river or spring. An intensive geophysical survey by English Heritage indicated a huge site, some 200 metres (218 yds) across with further possible buildings to the north and south. The initial feeling at English Heritage was of a “palatial complex” and this unfortunately was elaborated by the “press” into “Roman Palace”. Again, intensive field-walking by the Swale Survey Team over a two year period has recovered sufficient pottery to indicate the site was in existence from the first to fouth centuries. Of particular interest are some marble wall sheathing retrieved which has now been identified by Dr David Williams as Roman from the Carrara quarries in Italy. Another feature of the site is a large artificial bowl or depression in the centre of the site. 95 This was observed to have Roman drainage ditches and terracing cut into the chalk when being excavated, again this is a feature of some importance. Topographic considerations Blacklands Roman site is located above a spring at the head of a creek or fleot called in the earliest Anglo-Saxon charters “Ealh-fleot”. The word ealh meant a temple or, in more general terms, a sanctuary. This charter dates from AD 699 and indicates that in 699 there were sufficient ruins left at Blacklands and sufficient local memory for the place to be given its correct name – a temple or sanctuary – by the Anglo-Saxon compilers of the charter. This charter is in fact one of the earliest surviving charters from Kent and indicates Blacklands was a pagan rather than a Christian religious complex. If it were Christian the word eccles would have been used rather than ealh. The Roman villa site above Ewell Farm is of equal distance from other Roman villas located north of Watling Street. Ewell or aewell is Anglo-Saxon for “river-source” or “prolific spring” and although there is no longer a spring, its memory still survives in the place-name. To the east of the Blacklands Roman site is located the Medieval border of Faversham Lathe, thought by Witney and Joliffe to be the boundary of the Anglo-Saxon Faversham “villa regio”, a provincial unit, precisely defined, of very ancient origin, and one of the precursors to the seven Lathes into which Kent was divided. Each was formed around what had been a court of the Kentish kings, and represented one of the fundamental institutions of the old Jutish kingdom based ultimately on Roman land-holdings and estates (Everitt, 1978). 96 Roman religious sites Many of the native deities are associated with water, and in particular springs or sources of rivers. The Romano-Celtic temple or sanctuary had a number of features in common- a sacred enclosure, temples and a theatre or amphitheatre to accommodate the crowds assembled to watch celebrations and festivals and fairs. Some, like Titsey and Frilford, were situated close to tribal boundaries, and some like Gourney-sur-Aronde were ritually demolished. All these features are apparent at Blacklands and this, with place-name identification, a possible amphitheatre, close to a tribal boundary, and as the excavators noted, the superb fourth century full- colour pictorial mosaics that had seem to have been ritually demolished. All this indicates the Blacklands Roman site is a possible rural sanctuary of national importance. Further Roman buildings have now been located 100 metres (109 yds) to the south around the site of the Ewell spring; these were exposed during building works in the 1970s but unfortunately were covered quickly. The farm foreman told the Survey Team that a stone gateway and road leading east were exposed at a depth of three feet. Roman pottery retrieved from the south-east slope above the Ewell spring dates the site from the second to late third centuries AD. In October 1961, 500 metres south of Ewell Farm at Watling Street a section of Roman road 12-13 feet (3.6-3.9 metres) wide was uncovered, the road ran north and south. An extensive cobbled area, showing signs of intensive wear, apparently comprised working floors for the smelting of iron. Another cobbled area had formed the floor of a building roughly 9ft (2.75 metres) square. Its plan was reminiscent of a small shrine, this proposition being supported by the presence of small finds including an incomplete clay statuette of Deanutrix type and an unusual number of coins ranging in date from the second to the late fourth century AD.

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