Tim Tatton-Brown and Nigel Macpherson-Grant
Current Archaeology, October 1985
Introduction
The Middle Saxon wic
Anglo-Saxon Canterbury: Pottery
Introduction
In Current Archaeology 93 Alan Vince argued that middle Saxon London was situated not in Roman London but outside it along the Strand. A similar article by Martin Biddle in Popular Archaeology suggested that middle Saxon London was called the Aldwych, from the Old Vicus, and was indeed situated around the street of that name. This new idea won immediate acceptance. At York the Viking settlement at Jorvik is now seen to be deliberately outside the Roman town, and now we would like to suggest that at Canterbury the Anglo-Saxon trading settlement – the wic – was also outside the Roman walls on the north-east.
Recent excavations in Canterbury, particularly on the Marlowe sites, have shown that the latest Roman occupation in the city seems to come to an end soon after 400 AD, and that after this, 'dark earth' layers start to build up. A unique Visigothic (South Gaulish) gold tremissis minted c. 480, which is worn and clipped, was found on the Marlowe site in 1982, and a few structures on the Marlowe I site may date from this period. The first half of the 6th century in Canterbury is, as elsewhere, a complete Dark Age, and it is not until the later 6th century that the main phase of Anglo-Saxon occupation seems to start again in the city in a period when Aethelberht of Kent (c. 560-616) is 'Bretwalda'. By the end of the 6th century grubenhauser were beginning to appear in central Canterbury and it is still a debatable point as to whether any of these date to before 597 when Aethelberht welcomed St Augustine to Canterbury. On balance we would perhaps suggest that it was St Augustine's restoration of the (Roman) churches in the city and conversion of the people (all well documented by Bede) that caused the resettlement of the intra-mural area on a large scale.
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The Middle Saxon wic
Two very recent excavations by the Trust outside the eastern city walls are now beginning to throw more light on Canterbury's 'Aldwych', which was called Fordwich. The first of these sites was in the outer court of St Augustine's Abbey where rescue excavations early in 1984, in advance of a new students' union building for the local teacher training college, found an important group of 8th-century pottery (see below) as well as a mid-9th-century coin. Even more recently (January 1985) we have been excavating another rescue site just to the south of the very famous St Martin's Church, and this too has produced rubbish pits containing 8th-century pottery (including Ipswich-type sherds). Close to this pit were found the remains of a metalled road (also of Anglo-Saxon date) which led north-eastwards from the main Roman road on St Martin's Hill (the Canterbury-Sandwich road) to the little town of Fordwich. This road was also the main road to St Martin's Church, and is still used today by the many visitors who come to see the church. Beyond the church the road today becomes only a track, but throughout the early medieval period it was the shortest route (as well as the only dry-shod route) from Canterbury to Fordwich.
By the late Anglo-Saxon period, Fordwich was a separate borough from Canterbury and in 1055 much of the lands in the borough were granted by Edward the Confessor to St Augustine's Abbey. However, the later medieval borough has boundaries which show it was cut out of Canterbury and there is an area called 'wic' (first mentioned in Domesday Monachorum) that is close to Fordwich which remained part of Canterbury. It seems probable therefore that the whole area north-east of Canterbury along the banks of the Stour (i.e. the parishes of St Martin's and St Mary's, Fordwich) was originally Canterbury's 'wic'. Until recently it was assumed that the centre of the wic was at Fordwich. However, the present centre of the village and the parish church of St Mary are all on reclaimed land near the late medieval port. The earlier settlement was almost certainly on higher ground to the south and west, but whether there was a continuous area of settlement as far as St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's Church is still unknown as the area between has been a Royal Park since 1538 (it is still MOD land and is used to this day for military exercises!). Very recently two silver pennies of Offa (dated c 792-6), which were found with a metal-detector about a quarter of a mile south-east of Fordwich church, have been presented to the Royal Museum, Canterbury.
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St Martin's Church, which Bede tells us was built in the Roman period, was used as a church by Bertha (Aethelberht's Frankish Christian queen) and St Augustine's band of monks before the king was converted. The excavations of December 1984 to January 1985 proved that there was no late Roman cemetery in the area immediately south of the church. This may mean that St Martin's Church was in origin not a cella memoria in a cemetery but a late Roman domestic building (even possibly a villa). Is it possible, therefore, that this was the 6th-century royal vill at Canterbury and that it originated as a late Roman villa? The most important find from the area (though sadly the exact provenance is not known) is the unique St Martin's Hoard – in reality, a necklace of mounted Merovingian gold coins and a 'medalet' inscribed with the name of Bishop Liudhard (whom Bede tells us was Bertha's chaplain in the late 6th century). This is just the sort of find (presumably from a burial) to suggest that St Martin's was more than just a chapel which Bertha occasionally visited. Is it not possible that we are here dealing with a chapel, converted for Bertha's use, within a royal vill that commanded the high ground above the Stour Estuary?
In Canterbury itself there is now much more evidence in the Middle Saxon period for intra-mural occupation. Several new sceattas have been found as well as other rubbish pits containing 8th-century imported pottery (see below). There seem therefore to be two communities at this time, and Dr Nicholas Brooks in his new book, The Early History of the Church at Canterbury, refers to 9th-century documentary references to innan burhware and utan burhware – i.e. people who live inside and outside the burh. Are these also the same two communities as defined above?
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Anglo-Saxon Canterbury: Pottery
Early-Mid Saxon: c 450-675/700
The Mid-Saxon transition: c 700/50-800
Late Saxon: 800-975/1025
Early-Mid Saxon: c. 450-675/700
It has been suggested above that the second main period of Saxon occupation in Canterbury does not really begin until around the time of St Augustine, and the earliest Saxon metalwork would tend to support this. It comes from the 1978 Marlowe I excavation. The biconical jar from the same site is stratigraphically earlier than this metalwork, and its form and decoration is related to the 5th-century continental 'Schalenurnen' series. The combined evidence of this piece, the two equally early Canterbury vessels from Frere's excavations, together with a number of early decorated sherds from secure and residual contexts, strongly suggests that the first re-occupation of Canterbury occurred in the late 5th century.
Throughout this period, pottery is hand made and almost certainly fired in 'backyard' bonfires at low temperatures. Detailed examination of the Marlowe I pottery resulted in three main fabric types: fine sandy, fairly even sand and chalk, and high chalk. Local hand-made forms are generally small – jars, cooking-pots, bowls and beakers. During the 6th century and early 7th, continental homeland traditions are still strong and 'table wares' were well-made and decorated with carefully executed complex designs of high quality, the vessels themselves often being burnished to a smooth glossy finish. During the later 7th century, if not earlier, these traditions appear to lapse and both decoration and quality appear to decline.
The decline might be associated with the increasing presence of organically tempered pottery during the 7th century. This is the fourth major fabric type of this period, and it began possibly in the late 6th century, peaked in the 7th, and was probably dying by the early 8th. The use of grass or chaff to temper potting clay is a curious phenomenon, though it is accompanied by an increase in vessel size, with larger jars, and cooking-pots with lugs applied in to rims, pierced for suspension.
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The Mid-Saxon transition: c 700/50-800
At some point in this period the fabric types become increasingly sandy. The change is sufficiently marked to imply some degree of experimentation. To some extent this must have been determined by an increase in population and the need to find better, higher firing clays – organic-filled wares can hardly be called satisfactory and many of the earlier Saxon fabrics were made from valley brickearth clays containing chalk, which do not fire well at high temperatures. These transitional sandy fabrics probably represent the period immediately prior to the foundation or an organised, market-orientated industry. In this period both fine and coarse 'pimply' Ipswich-type ware pitchers and cooking-pots were imported to Canterbury in some numbers, indicating strong cultural and trading links between East Anglia and Kent. Shell-filled wares are also introduced, arguably between c. 750-800.
Four recently excavated groups are of singular importance for the period. One, from Marlowe Theatre 1982, consisted of 'transitional' local sandy wares together with North French, Ipswich, and other probably East Anglian imports. The second from Marlowe III 1980, produced a boss-decorated local sandy ware sherd. The third, from our 1984 St Augustine's site, yielded a boss-decorated sandy ware, shell-filled and again Ipswich-type sherds. Finally, our current St Martin's Hill site has an identical group. There are still some problems – the import dating for the Marlowe Theatre group should place it into the 8th century, whereas the St Augustine's pottery (all considerably worn and fragmentary) came from a pit which produced a coin of Aethelberht II (858-66), rather worn and at a higher level.
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Late Saxon: 800-975/1025
During the Mid-Saxon 'transition' there is an increase in purely sandy fabrics, until the 9th century one particularly sandy ware becomes the dominant fabric type. It is visually almost identical to the later early medieval and medieval sandy wares known to have been produced in the Tyler Hill area. These London clays were first exploited in the 9th century and provided the raw material for an industry that continued through until the 15th century.
For the Mid-Saxon period and into the early 9th century, local products continued to be hand made, but from probably the mid- or later 9th century, pots are beginning to have their rims 'trued' on a tournette. Another finishing trait was the knife-smoothing or scraping of some pots' surfaces. During the 10th century the formal range widens to include cooking-bowls, small dishes, handled and spouted pitchers. Throughout this century, there is an increasing standardisation of form, and though there is still no sign of fast-wheel production, forms and finish are technically more competent. Knife-trimming continues alongside conventionally produced vessels and here, too, there is a similar degree of care and attention.
Although the final vestiges of specifically Saxon formal traits do not disappear until the late 11th-early 12th centuries, there is a significant change during the early 11th. Knife-trimming on local sandy ware products declines as a major characteristic, presaging the onset of the early medieval period.
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