More information : (TQ 44373195) A typical Iron Age hill fort with inturned entrance on the NE and a second possible entrance on the NW. Excavated by JR Money from 1969-74 with following results:-
Period I (Neolithic)
A scatter of worked flints (blades and scrapers mainly) cores, waste material and hammerstones suggest slight neolithic occupation.
Period II (late pre-Roman Iron Age)
What appears to be late pre-Roman occupation is indicated by a round-house, with substantial central posts, the perimeter marked by a narrow gully (Fig. 3 and H9). The house, which is about 11m in diameter, contained some small hearths and pottery of late Iron Age type. The inturned east entrance of the fortified enclosure had stone-revetted and palisaded banks, through which ran a metalled road; there are two sets of stone-packed gateposts Fig. 4 and (D2/D3/D4).
A section cut through the bank and ditch (B2/B3) just north of the entrance showed again a stone-revetted and palisaded rampart behind a broad flat ditch, not unlike that of the second phase of the hillfort at High Rocks, near Tunbridge Wells. The absence of much silting between the bottom of the ditch and the fallen revetting stones suggests that the fortifications of Garden Hill collapsed or were thrown down soon after their construction. Like High Rocks II, the Garden Hill defences were probably built against some external threat of the early first century AD, possibly the Roman invasion of AD 43 (4). The presence of a hearth and pottery in the ditch immediately above the fallen revetting stones suggests that the defences were abandoned and the hilltop never refortified.
Period III (late 1st centry AD)
Beneath the bath-building and adjoining timber building, which are described below, extensive occupation of earlier date included the low ground-walls of a rectangular timber-framed building (3.5 x 9m) associated with late 1st century pottery and many iron nails (Fig. 3 and G8). Among other 1st century material were a worn denarius of Vespasian (AD 70-72) and a bronze strap-union probably dating from the third quarter of the 1st century AD.
Period IV (c. 120-200 AD)
A small but complete bath-building (9 m. long overall) was built to the NE of the remains of the rectangular building. The bath (Fig. 5 and F6) had a long stoke-hole (with position for boiler), a hot room (with bath annexe), tepid room, cold room and cold plunge. The two latter were floored with slabs of local sandstone and drained by lead pipes in to gullies, one of which led into a sump near the bath, and the other ran down-hill towards the Iron Age entrance (D4), which, even if still used for traffic, can no longer have been part of a defensive system. What were left of the pilae of the hot room were made of the usual hypocaust tiles. In the debris of the hot room the remains of 18 "spacers" were found, one still threaded on its iron hold-fast, for use in the vertical hot-air flue (5). In the tepid room some of the pilae were of stone, perhaps indicating that there were not enough tiles to finish the job in the traditional manner. The construction of the bath as a whole was rough and ready and has the appearance of a British attempt at copying a smarter Roman original.
Beside the cold plunge (Fig. 6) were found the pieces of an almost complete pane of Roman window glass (26 x 23cm), described by Dr. D. B. Harden as "a piece of prime importance for Romano-British archaeology"; it is now on exhibition in the British Museum (6). South of the bath was another timber-framed building (9 x 11m) which was clearly contemporary with the bath and gave access to it (G6/7). Both buildings are dated by related 2nd century Samian pottery.
Period V (post-2nd century)
The bath-building and attached timber building fell into disuse or were pulled down and the site tidied up for increased industrial use. Rubbish, including broken window glass and bath-house refuse, was thrown into pits (E3 and K3/4) behind the Iron Age rampart. The timber building was flattened and floored with clay to provide a solid and heat-proof base for a hearth (G6) in which a process involving heavy burning was carried out; there were also traces of intense burning in the ruins of the hot room of the bath. 50m to the SE a smithy working area (K3/K4) and what may be the base of an anvil, probably belonging to Period V, were partially excavated in 1974.
Undated Features
Groups and lines of substantial stone-packed post-holes (K6/L7) south and west of the bath building indicate the existence of other timber structures, but more extensive digging is needed before anything positive can be said about their shape, purpose and date.
Portable Finds
Apart from susbtantial quantities of local and imported (Samian, New Forest and Castor wares and a stamped amphora handle) pottery, portable finds included: various types of slag; numerous fragments of 1st/2nd century Roman window-glass and vessels (bowls and bottles); part of a glass paste intaglio representing the goddess Ceres; part of a silver twist (in the corrosion of which the Ancient Monuments Laboratory detected bromine derived from the sea-salt); the 1st century silver coin and bronze strap-union mentioned above; iron nails; quartzite pebbles used as pestles; and blocks of sandstone used variously as mortars and for sharpening metal implements. (1-6)
Hill fort as described, surveyed at 1/2500. (7)
See Archives folder P/F 37, No. 2305. (8)
EA 14 Probable Roman villa on an erstwhile Iron Age hillfort. Excavated by J H Money, who found a Roman bath-house and evidence for iron workings. (9)
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