Steve Ouditt and Paul Bennett
Canterbury's Archaeology 1989-1990, Canterbury Archaeological Trust
An archaeological evaluation of the site of a proposed extension to the St Peter's Methodist School was carried out by the Trust during January and February 1990. This work was undertaken on behalf of and funded by Kent County Council.
The site, at present occupied by the school playing field and several mobile classrooms, originally formed part of the Greyfriars precinct, established in 1224 and surrendered to the Crown in 1538. The Great Stour formed the south-eastern boundary of the precinct, with a tributary of the Stour separating the principal buildings of the establishment from open ground to the south-east, which possibly contains the friar's cemetery. A north-western dyke separated the buildings of the Greyfriars from an area probably set aside for gardens and orchard. This was also surrounded by a leat whose north-eastern boundary is now defined by the line of Black Griffin Lane. The present school buildings and playing field lie at the northern end of the central enclosure (containing the conventual buildings), north-west of Greyfriars Passage and close to the intersecting leat for the north-western enclosure. In the mid-17th century the present school playing field formed part of a landscaped garden, shown on a coloured map of Canterbury dated c. 1640, at a time when some of the conventual buildings had been converted into a substantial dwelling. W & H Doidge's plan of the city of Canterbury for 1752 shows the area as a garden and orchards at that time, as does the first edition Ordnance Survey for 1874. St Peter's Methodist Church was built east of Greyfriars Passage and immediately north of the intermediate enclosure in 1811. The school was established at the southern end of the church in the 1870s and subsequently expanded into the northern part of the central enclosure. The conventual buildings of Greyfriars now lie beneath waste ground at the southern boundary of school land and a garden in the ownership of Canterbury City Council to the south of that boundary.
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Six trial-trenches were cut. Trenches I-V (each 4m x 2m) were positioned around the edges of the proposed building. Trench I was on its northern edge, straddling the dyke west of Greyfriars Passage. Trenches II and III were on the eastern edge of the proposed building. Trenches IV and V were cut close to the west and south edges of the proposed building. Trench VI (14m x 1m) was to the south of this area, positioned to evaluate a proposed tarmac area for car parking and playground. A final exploratory trench was opened in the north-eastern corner of the school grounds adjacent to Greyfriars Passage, to examine a bridge spanning the northern dyke under Greyfriars Passage.
Trench I was cut to a maximum depth of 2.5m below the present ground surface and situated immediately south of the boundary wall separating school land from the garden of Cogan House. It proved to be entirely within the fill of the northern dyke. No trace of the southern edge of the primary dyke was discerned. The northern edge of the dyke had been completely obscured by the footings of the boundary wall. The lowest deposits excavated comprised layers of dark grey silt with abundant organic inclusions yielding pottery dating from c. 1550-1700. Although excavation of these deposits ceased at water table level and a total depth for the leat was not determined, the sloping lower infill of the ditch strongly suggested that the southern edge of the leat lay just outside the excavated area. The lower deposits may have been deliberately dumped to infill and perhaps reduce the size of the leat during episodes of landscaping in the post-Dissolution period. Above these two layers all deposits dated to the 19th century. It is just possible that this final sequence of deposits represents the infilling of a late recut of the dyke whose size conforms closely to the width of the dyke shown on the 1874 survey. The layers capping dyke infill contained tile and brick debris and a few sandstone blocks consistent with an episode of ground clearance and perhaps landscaping. Towards the end of the 19th century or later, this deposit was cut by a construction trench for a ceramic drainpipe, the wooden shuttering for which survived in situ. The sequence here was completed with a thick deposit of topsoil.
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A 2m long section of boundary wall in the north-east corner of the school grounds, immediately east of Trench I, was cleared of ivy, examined and recorded. The operation was undertaken to examine the remains of a possible bridge spanning Greyfriars Passage and a barrel-vaulted brick-built culvert built beneath it. A short section of the spring of the arch was exposed, constructed in small mortared blocks of ragstone. The arch spring was surmounted by a levelling course of mortared flints and four ashlared courses of ragstone blockwork. The present flint and brickwork boundary wall was raised off this fabric. Insufficient evidence was obtained to assign a date for the build of this structure, but its appearance suggests that it may be medieval. It is quite likely that this structure formed part of the bridge with gate above which gave access to the north-east corner of the garden and is shown on the 1640 map of Canterbury. The brick-built culvert underlying masonry fabric was probably constructed in the late 19th century.
In Trench II, removal of topsoil revealed very clean gravel only c. 0.45m below the existing surface. Two features were cut into this gravel. In the south-east corner of the trench was part of a shallow pit containing pottery dating to 1775-1825. In the south-west corner, a round pit or post-hole 0.70m deep yielded pottery dating to 1450-75. At the time of excavation the uniform colour, consistency and thickness of the gravel led us to believe that it was a natural deposit and no further excavation was considered necessary. In retrospect the gravel, in excess of 0.70m thick, may have been the fill of a large post-Dissolution garden bedding trench or more likely a dumped layer capping medieval cemetery deposits.
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Trench III proved to be within a cemetery. Fifteen graves in all were identified, 12 of these being fully excavated. A mixture of males, females, adults and children were present, these located presumably in a hitherto unknown lay cemetery to Greyfriars. The uppermost burials, located at 0.60-0.70m below the existing ground surface, were uniformly sealed by brown sandy loam and topsoil. The excavation was carried down into deposits of mixed gravel and brickearth to a maximum depth of 1.50m. Natural subsoils were not encountered.
Trench IV was excavated to a depth of 1.4m. The footing for a robbed wall running approximately north-west to south-east was discovered. Several layers of rammed gravel on the western side of this wall may prove to be the remains of an external courtyard or path. The pottery evidence, while not explicit, broadly supports a view that the wall and metallings were in use at the same time as the graveyard.
The lowest layer excavated in Trench IV, a very compact dark orange-grey silt, contained residual 'Belgic' pottery and a single sherd of late 11th-century pottery. This layer capped a possible flood deposit of very soft light grey silty clay containing charcoal flakes. The high water table prevented further excavation. Above these layers and adjacent to the wall footing was a metalling, consisting of compact orange clay and gravel. Apart from residual Roman material, the few sherds from this metalling dated no later than c. 1175-1225. Above this was a series of dumped layers and metallings. The robber trench was cut through these deposits, but yielded only residual pottery. The south-eastern side of the robber trench coincided with the edge of the excavation. Here only a brown loam was observed in the section. The complex sequence of deposits to the north-west of the robber-trench appeared to butt against it, perhaps suggesting that they had accumulated after the wall had been constructed. If this is the case, the wall must have been constructed on a very shallow foundation. Whatever the case, the different deposits either side of the wall do strongly suggest an ancient boundary in this position, perhaps the cemetery boundary. Both robber trench and horizons either side of the wall were sealed by demolition debris and a thick deposit of topsoil.
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Trench V was also within the graveyard and the cuts for several graves were identified as soil stains at 0.80m below the existing ground surface. Only one grave was excavated, although the burial was left in situ. The horizon at which the grave cuts were located was very distinct and was sealed by a layer of clean orange sandy gravel 25cm thick. The gravel was sealed by successive deposits of brown loam and topsoil to a total depth of 0.70m.
Trench VI was excavated to a depth of 50cm to determine the nature of upper archaeological deposits in an area proposed to be a tarmac-covered playground and car park. Two large modern features were located. A corner of one of these features was taken down to reveal intact post-Dissolution demolition deposits at 1.10m below the existing ground surface. No further excavation was considered necessary to evaluate this area.
The evaluation exercise proved the location of the dyke flanking the northern boundary of Greyfriars precinct and strongly indicated the existence of a major cemetery. A possible northern boundary wall to the cemetery with external metalled path or courtyard was also located. The skeletal assemblage comprising adults of both sexes and children indicates that this is the site of a hitherto unknown lay cemetery.
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