The Upchurch Marshes and Roman Pottery.

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By GEORGE DOWKER, F.G.S.

CERTAIN class of Roman fictile ware is known as Upchurch pottery, the prevailing colour of which is blue black; it is fine and hard in texture, and elegant in shape and pattern. It is met with in abundance at most Roman stations. This pottery takes its name from the Upchurch Marshes, near Sittingbourne, in Kent, where it occurs in great abundance in several of the creeks that intersect these marshes, and mostly at depths below high water mark. We are indebted to Mr. W. Roach Smith, F.S.A., for the earliest notice of these potteries.*

The village of Upchurch lies to the north of the Watling Street, or great Roman road from London to Canterbury, between Rainham and Sittingbourne; and the Upchurch Marshes stretch northward towards the Med

way; but they constitute only a small portion of the lowland, over which the Roman Figuli for a long series of years exercised their art. In the winter these marshes are very difficult to approach, and at all seasons the tides must be consulted. The potteries probably extended far towards Sheerness and the Nore, and along both sides of the Medway, as fragments of Upchurch ware have been found at distant intervals over this area, which must

have been in Roman times dry land, though now under water at high tide. The Otterham and other creeks cut through these marshes, and expose the pottery buried at considerable depths in the mud. The position of these potteries, so extensively found over an area now covered by the sea, has given rise to much speculation, and has by some been taken as evidence of the subsidence of the land since its occupation by the Romans; but this can hardly be maintained; any subsidence of the land must have been the result of geological phenomena that would extend over a large area, and we have no reason to suppose this was the case; for in other neighbouring parts of Kent the evidences seem to point to an opposite conclu

* See Collectanea Antiqua, vol. iv.

sion. The Isle of Thanet was in the time of the Romans occupied by an arm of the sea, which has since silted up and become dry land; and their celebrated Rutupian Port, Richborough, is now far removed from the sea; while the Isle of Grain, between which and the mainland a channel formerly existed, is now (like the Isle of Thanet) an island only in name.

If we seek for the reason of this encroachment of the sea in some parts, and its recession at others, we shall find it in tidal action. There are evidences, however, that extensive tracts of land were protected by embankments (the work of the Romans) from the inroads of the sea. In Romney Marsh a large tract of land below high water mark is protected by artificial embankments. About half of this area was reclaimed from the sea by a very ancient embankment known as the Ree Wall, of Roman construction, though it has been by some archeologist ascribed to the Britons. It is, therefore, more probable that when the Upchurch Marshes were occu

pied by the Roman potteries, they were It is tolerably certain that at that period the protected from inundation by embankments. Isle of Sheppey, which now so rapidly wastes away, before the tidal action of the waves of the sea, extended more northwards; consequently the mouth of the Medway was then further removed, and one mouth of the river opened out westward of the Isle of Grain.

An account of an exploration of this most interesting neighbourhood lately made by a party of archeologists, with a view to determine some of these points, will be read with interest.

The day fixed for the excursion was that when the lowest tide occurred; our party (or at least some of them) were provided with wading boots and apparel suited for exploring the sides of a muddy creek at low water. Ötterham Creek was our destination; this had before yielded much of the Roman pottery we were in quest of. Those who have visited Sittingbourne, or passed through it, must have noticed the low marshy tracts stretching away towards the Medway, with its numerous creeks, which at high water bear away numerous barges laden with bricks and other merchandise.

From Rainham, the nearest station to the

creek, we passed through numerous brickyards to Upchurch, the peculiar extinguisherlike spire of whose church we had seen in the distance. Thence we were led the way to the creek, through marshes intersected with roads apparently of ancient date. We soon came within sight of the creek. The tide was low, and but a narrow channel existed, so low and narrow it looked, that we fancied it might be easily forded; but in this we were greatly mistaken. The attempt to wade into the muddy creek must not be made without due precaution. We were provided with wading-boots and fishing trousers; so, disdainful of appearances, and eager to find the Roman pottery, we plunged into the creek-into it indeed! for we found no terra firma: the London clay mud, with which its shores are lined, is so fine and soft, that we had some difficulty in pulling one leg out after the other, and at every attempt to stand still we found ourselves gradually disappearing in the mud. One of our party contented himself with viewing our exploits from the bank, absorbed in thought, or satisfied with his past researches.

We were not long before meeting with the Roman fictile ware, so thickly strewing the sides of the creek that we might easily have picked up barrow-loads - ay, cart-loads-of fragments of the blue clay vessels of various designs and patterns, the "Upchurch ware"; also some Samian pottery and some coarse red ware; these were strewn along the sides of the creek sloping down to the water's edge, more than ten feet (I should judge) below the shore where the grass grew. We passed an excavation in the mud of the creek where some enthusiastic antiquary had been digging: had the tide been a little higher, it would have proved a nice pitfall for us. If the object of this excavation be to ascertain the depth of the pottery deposit, I do not think it will prove much; the wash of the tide on the shores of the creek leaves the stones, oyster-shells, and pottery strewn on the sides as far down as low water mark, where by any fresh deposit of mud they will again be buried, and in all probability this process has been often repeated; so this digging may only show where the channel of the creek has slightly altered its course. But elsewhere fragments of pottery in the sides of the creek

seem to prove the deposit is from five to seven feet below high water mark. The occurrence of the Samian pottery was probably an accidental circumstance, the Samian ware being an introduction from abroad, and not manufactured in this country. It may have been introduced into these potteries as patterns for the potters, or there may have been a depôt of pottery here.

The Samian pottery, as my readers are probably aware, is a beautiful deep red ware of an extremely delicate texture, having somewhat the appearance of red sealing-wax. The vessels composed of it are of all sizes and shapes, and very fragile, so that it is only under favourable circumstances that we find them unbroken; and it is not unusual to find bowls of this ware that have been broken and mended by their former owners, by means of leaden rivets,-this showing the value set on it. The Samian vessels have generally figures of men and animals stamped upon them for ornamentation, and many of these are groups taken from the ancient mythology-such as the labours of Hercules, the amours of Jupiter, Diana surprised by Acteon; others represent hunting scenes. A great proportion of the vessels of this ware have the name of the potter stamped upon them in a label, usually at the bottom. Many hundreds of the potters' marks have been recorded; these names are generally Gaulish and German. Potteries of this ware have been found in France, and particularly on the banks of the Rhine-as at Brusche (Bas Rhin), Luxembourg, Saverne, and Rheinzabern, in Bavaria. In these places not only have potters' kilns been found, but the moulds and stamps for the names. In fact, the evidences are all in favour of the foreign origin of Samian ware.

At Whitstable, which is but a few miles east of the mouth of the Medway, from time to time various specimens of the Samian ware have been dredged up at a place which has been called in consequence the "pudding and pan rock." It was formerly supposed that there had been a manufactory of pottery there; but the greater probability is that some Roman vessel laden with this ware had been wrecked, and this view is strengthened by the fact that the pottery is now very rarely found there. It is not improbable that the

destination of this Roman wrecked vessel may have been the Upchurch station.

With regard to Upchurch pottery, there is no doubt it was made in Britain; and much light has been thrown on the mode of its manufacture by the researches of the late Mr. Artis, at Castor, on the eastern boundaries of Northamptonshire, the site of the Roman town of Durobriva. He not only discovered the site of the potteries of a like description of ware, but also the potters' kilns; and from his researches we learn, that the blue and slate-coloured vessels were formed by suffocating the fire of the kiln, when its contents acquired sufficient heat to give the proper colour. The clay from which the pots were made was mixed with chaff or other organic matter. This blue ware loses its blue colour, and becomes red, if it is exposed to a higher temperature in an open fire. The Durobrivian pottery was of a superior quality, and adorned with more elegance than that made at the Upchurch Marshes.-But I am digressing.

The tide was now coming into the creek, and we thought it prudent to be getting out; so we ascended to the bank, and made an exploration of the neighbourhood, finding our way along an embankment, which excluded the tide from part of the marsh. Here we made a further discovery. A dike having been widened, and the soil cast up on the embankment, we found it contained numerous specimens of Roman pottery, and the ditch section exhibited a regular layer of burnt earth and pottery. This spot was about a furlong south-east from the creek, where most pottery was met with; and in all probability a continuous layer of such material might be found at similar depths at intermediate distances. The deposit of burnt earth and pottery I should estimate as at least seven feet below the top of the sea embankment. A like deposit exists much further northward, and over a large area.

Towards the Isle of Sheppey, the neighbouring Halstow Marshes are, like those at Upchurch, partly flooded at high water, and have also afforded evidences of the Roman occupation, in remains buried in the alluvial mud. To understand how this silting goes on, we must remember that the tide, in coming in, while in motion holds

VOL. VII.

much mud in suspension, which is precipitated when the water is stationary at the top of the tide; thus land unprotected by embankment is by this means raised in level, so that we often find a great difference between the level of land inside and outside of embankments. As this is the case, it follows that if ancient embankments are allowed to fall into decay, the sea may find its way in and submerge large tracts. The set of the tides will cause accumulations of deposit at certain places, and remove them at others; we must therefore be prepared for great changes in the relative positions of sea and land, in low areas, after many centuries have elapsed. A reference to a geological map of this district will show what a large area is occupied by alluvium, and its low level and difficulty of access has doubtless rendered the work of discovering the potters' kilns (that in all probability once existed here), a difficult undertaking; but a thorough examination of these marshes will probably bring to light kilns like those that rewarded the researches of Mr. Artis in Northamptonshire. I may mention a fine collection of the Upchurch pottery has been made by the late Rev. John Woodruff of Upchurch, and a detailed account of the pottery will be found in the fourth volume of Collectanea Antiqua.

We now return to our starting-point. The tide is up, and the creek has wonderfully changed in its appearance. Those low mud flats are seen no more, a swelling river has usurped their place. Waking up from their low-lying moorings, innumerable barges are tacking up the creek, and their coppercoloured sails are dotting the landscape far and near. The shores of the creeks are cut up into numerous ravines, into which the rising tide finds its way; the higher parts are covered with sea plants: the sea lavender (Statice Limonium), with its pale purple flowers then in full bloom, showing up from among the long grass and the common orache (Atriplex patula), gave a charm to the landscape. In the distance the river Medway's "silver streak" separated us from the Stoke Marshes and the Isle of Grain. Beyond our view the enterprising director of the South Eastern Railway, Sir Edward Watkin, is establishing a new port, "Port Victoria," in connection with the North Kent and Hun

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dred of Hoo Railway, which passes through marshes having ancient embankments, believed by Mr. Roach Smith to be of Roman date; and this is no improbable surmise. Romney Marsh (before alluded to) had embankments, affording evidence of great engineering skill, and the Romans must have been impressed with the great value of the rich pasture land. Elsewhere in Kent, along the valley of the Stour, very ancient embankments exist, that probably also owe their origin to their constructive skill. Romney Marsh also had its Roman potteries, that were protected by the Ree Wall, an embankment which, according to Mr. Elliot, reclaimed twenty-four thousand acres from the sea. This gentleman, who was the engineer employed to construct and maintain the Dymchurch sea wall, states, that "it having been necessary to alter the direction of the wall by forming a new line about 150 yards from the old barrier, he had a large quantity of soil taken from the adjoining meadows. In the course of these operations, at about two feet from the surface, extensive layers of fragments of pottery were laid open, mixed with scoræ, portions of querns or hand mills, whetstones, broken tiles, animal bones, and a few coins." Subsequent excavations have proved that these strata of broken pottery extended westwards from Dymchurch at least a mile parallel with the sea wall, and at a consider able distance inland: they occur at intervals, and present the appearance of having been formed by filling up, with the refuse of the kilns, the cuttings made to procure clay for the manufacturing of pottery. The beds of these ancient trenches are to be traced to low water mark, thus proving that a certain extent of land which was then inhabited is now submerged, and indicate that the sea boundary of this coast, at the period to which those remains point, was probably half-a-mile seaward beyond its present bounds. The site and character of the layers of broken pottery are analogous to those of Upchurch.*

Let us examine the numerous evidences of the Roman occupation of the neighbourhood of Milton and Sittingbourne, and we shall be constrained to believe that it was most densely peopled, and a place of considerable * See Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne, p. 245.

importance in Roman Britain. The site of Durolevum is a disputed point among antiquaries. Some have placed it near Faversham; others, among them Mr. Roach Smith (no mean authority), at Ospringe, while the constructors of the Ordnance Map (taking, I presume, the distance from Duroverno, Canterbury, as exactly twelve miles) place it some distance off, about half-way between the latter place and Sittingbourne. With all due deference to these great authorities, I would suggest that the neighbourhood of Sittingbourne has as good a title to it as any other place. do not know how far either of these places extended; and should the distances in the itineraries prove correct, it will depend much where the measurement starts from. The itinerary of Antoninus gives the distances from Londinis ad Portum Dubris as millia passuum, lxvi. sic. Durobrivis m.p. xxvii,, Duroverno m.p. xxv., Dubris m.p. xix.

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Many of the numerous specimens of Roman art found in the brickfields of Sittingbourne and Milton are preserved in the admirable local museum of Mr. George Paine, F.S.A., many of which have been figured and described in the volumes of the Kent Archæological Society; and others from the collection of the late Mr. Bland, of Hartlip, now in the Maidstone Museum, point out this neighbourhood as one so densely peopled by Romans, and having such an amount of wealth, as to prove this station to have held an important position among the towns of Roman Britain. The cemeteries round Sittingbourne have yielded glass vessels of great beauty and variety, bronze vessels, gold Armillæ, leaden coffins, and commoner objects of art in greater profusion than from most Roman towns. I may instance Bexhill cemetery, in Milton, in which more leaden coffins have been found than in any other cemetery in Britain.*

Let us picture to ourselves this locality in Roman times. The creeks running into the larger river Medway, with a more northerly mouth than its present one, were protected by sea-walls reaching to the greater embankments along the Thames and Medway. The intervening marshes occupied by large potteries employing a large population; roads connecting these creeks with the great street, * See Archæologia Cantiana, vol. ix., p. 164.

the highway to Gaul and Rome; numerous villas along the sides of those fertile valleys that skirt the edges of the creeks; Roman galleys carrying their merchandise to the Thames; the produce of the rich soil of Sittingbourne and the pottery then the staple commodity of the place, as the bricks. are now; rich pastures where the Bos Longifrons fattened; and wooded dells where the Romans hunted the stag and deer.

The importance of these potteries and their extent we can but faintly realize; but we cannot for a moment suppose the Romans would have left them to the mercies of the overflowing tide. Their imperial ideas of Their imperial ideas of public works-their roads, their aqueducts, and their bridges-were models of constructive skill and durability.

What a contrast is presented by the Upchurch marshes at the present time, with their sea-covered mud flats, the home of the curlew and other wildfowl! The corporations who are supposed to exercise jurisdiction over these low-lying tracts of land, and who are armed by special Acts of Parliament to enable them to stay the inroads of the sea, are, like the Medway barges lying at lowlevel moorings. At present the owners of land are supposed to look after their individual interests in the matter of sea protection. But these are sometimes conflicting, and one individual cannot protect his land by a seawall, unless his neighbours do likewise. This laissez faire system of proceeding, or rather not proceeding, will not do in an age of sanitary inspectors and boards of health. Port Victoria may bring some change in this respect, and embankments, in course of time, again alter the face of the country.

to the first, and for a long time the solitary, attempt to supply, by means of a cheap and popular manual, the want felt for information of this kind. The credit of leading the way as a pioneer in this field belongs to the wellknown prebendary of Westminster, Peter Heylyn, whose Help to English History made its appearance in the year after the meeting of the Long Parliament. A testimony to the usefulness of the little duodecimo is afforded by the fact that it was republished, with supplements and enlargements, no less than four times in the latter half of the century, viz., in 1652, 1671, 1675, 1680; and in the century succeeding passed through three further editions. Besides names and dates, it contained a variety of notes, savouring of.course of the author's peculiar prejudices; but often amusing, and sometimes instructive, as bearing upon the circumstances of that memorable period.

It was not until 1671 that the author's real name was prefixed. In the second edition no name was given; in the first a nom-deplume. plume. Apparently Heylyn was fond of aliases; for he brought out two of his works under the name of Theophilus Churchman; and a treatise on Tithes, under the name of P. H. Treleyne, Gent. The title page of the original edition of the volume to which this paper refers runs as follows:

HPQ0AOгIA Anglorum, or an help to English History: containing a succession of all the Kings of England, and the English Saxons, the Kings and Princes of Wales, the Kings and Lords of the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight. As also of the Archbishops, Bishops, Dukes, Marquesses, and Earles, within the said Dominions. In three tables. By Robert Hall, Gent.

London, by T. and R. Cotes, for Henry Seile; and are to be sold at his shop in Fleet Street, over against Saint Dunstan's Church. 1641.

The dedication, to which is appended the name of the publisher, Henry Seile, is

By the Rev. H. W. REYNOLDS.

N the present day, when every new year brings with it a reissue of the many works of reference relating to the personnel of the titled and official classes, some interest attaches itself

* A villa discovered by Mr. Bland, at Hartlips, and another now in course of excavation, not far off, by Mr. G. Payne, F.S.A.

Charles, Prince of Wales, Heire Apparent to the Monarchie of Great Britaine," etc.; and the writer, after remarking that the prince's library is no doubt well stocked with historical works, goes on to say, "I therefore humbly addresse this piece to your Highnesse, not as a Booke, but as an index, which cannot offer the promise of a volume, yet may yeeld the profit of a Manuall." The

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