The Roman Watermills and Settlement at Ickham, Kent

This is the account of 'rescue' excavations undertaken during gravel quarrying between 1972 and 1974 at Ickham on the Little Stour river in Kent. Initially excavated by a local amateur group led by the late Jim Bradshaw, who had discovered the site, the final season was funded by the then Department of the Environment and directed by Christopher Young. Four watermills were identified, flanking a road, possibly the main route from Richborough to Canterbury. The earliest mill was in use in the early third century AD, the others during the fourth and early fifth century. The timber mill buildings and channels were associated with fourth-century pottery, coins, a wooden votive figurine and many other finds. Metalworking waste, furnace debris and tools suggest the mills formed part of an industrial settlement. Other metal objects include parts of pewter dishes, fragments of a lead tank and unusual lead alloy pendants which may have been made on site in the late fourth or fifth century. With twenty-three specialist contributors, extensive reports on these and many other small finds, the millstones and the important assemblages of late Roman pottery, constitute a large part of this long-awaited monograph.