More information : Tenter's Hill Field. TQ 545 738. (1)
Ordnance survey maps from the 1890's onwards have shown foundations on the slope of this hill, just above the River Darent, following the discovery of walls about that time. In 1979 it transpired that the hillside was to be substantially remodelled and terraced. Survey uncovered the corner of a mortared flint wall in the corner of one of the allotment plots. The wall was followed west of a footpath, and slowly an H configuration emerged, which corresponded exactly with a photograph by S. K Keyes in 1933. The Roman villa had been relocated after eighty years. Work went on to reveal store rooms, a kitchen and a separate room with an opus signinum floor. A long open rubbish pit outside the kitchen window yielded a rich harvest of finds including vast quantities of pottery and bone pins, needles, nails, fragments of glass and a bronze brooch. The villa would in all have been approx. 30m long east to west and about 15m wide north to south. There is evidence to suggest that the Romans themselves demolished much of the villa. Our pottery studies suggested that this occurred between 250 and 300 AD. (1)
Between three eighths and one half of the villa at the west end hace been ploughed away in antiquity and our conjecture is that this included a large covered barn with side store rooms and stabling. (2)
Additional reference, not consulted. (3)
KE 24 Listed as the site of a Roman villa. (4) |