Canterbury Archeological Trust

No. 10 Best Lane
Mark Houliston


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Following last year's excavation within the body of No.10 Best Lane (Canterbury's Archaeology 1987-8. 11-14), a full watching and recording brief was maintained while renovation and reconstruction work was being carried out on the building.

Timbers from the seventeenth-century butt-side-purlin roof (the roof parallel with the street frontage) were revealed and recorded, together with the uppermost courses of the south-west chalk-block and flint wall of the medieval building. Small-scale excavation and watching brief works were undertaken during the formation of a new ground floor slab. Here, dumps of dark brown loam mixed with alluvium were encountered, these perhaps intended to counteract a rising water table before the first masonry building was erected on the site in the middle of the twelfth century.

The medieval peg-tile hearth discovered during our earlier excavation was carefully lifted during the formation of the new slab and a concrete lined tank was constructed to allow it to be displayed below the floor of the new premises. During the cutting of the new tank, a compact surface of clay and pebbles was revealed beneath dumped deposits similar to those seen elsewhere. This metalling may have formed part of a courtyard or working surface for a building pre-dating the first masonry structure.

Our thanks go to Invicta Arts and Griffiths Builders for the assistance they have given us during the excavation and watching brief.

See this place today Click on the logo to see this place today.   The information on this page is Copyright © Canterbury Archaeological Trust Ltd. 1990 Reproduced with permission.
The text and pictures were taken from Canterbury's Archaeology 1988/1989, The 13th Annual Report of Canterbury Archaeological Trust Ltd.


Peter Collinson Last change: 18th November 2018