46 



the supposed anchor was an anchor at all. At an early period 

 water-mills were erected on the river, and these have had the 

 ■effect not only of raising the present water-level of Canterbury 

 but also the ground ; and at eight feet or more below the 

 present surface we find Roman remains and buildings, one of 

 which was discovered in St. Margaret's Street and another in 

 Sun Street a few years back, and in Burgate Street a fine 

 tesellated pavement was found in 1868. 



The mills date back to as far as Stephen's reign, Abbot's 

 mill and King's mill for instance.* In 1739, near Jewry 

 Lane, a Roman Mosaic was found four feet below the level of 

 the street. Some of the Roman buildings discovered in the 

 City were apparently placed on piles of wood driven into the 

 ground.f 



In Henry VIII.'s time a scheme was started for rendering the 

 Stour navigable from here to the sea. Fordwich, as one limb 

 ■of the Cinque Ports, next demands our attention. It was doubt- 

 less, as its name implied, a ford of considerable importance, 

 and the Roman road from Canterbury to Reculver seems to 

 have crossed the Stour at this place. It was navigable, as it 

 may still be said to be, from the sea, and doubtless conveyed all 

 the heavy merchandise for Canterbury. From Fordwich to 

 Grove Ferry the Stour winds its way through marshes, but little 

 above high-water mark, and for the most part unembanked 

 except only a low river wall — except in the case of Stodmarsh, 

 -svhere high embankments have shut out the waters of the Stour 

 for many ages. It takes its name from the Saxon word Stode, 

 sio-nifving a mare or marsh, and was given to St. Augustine's 

 Monastery in 693 by Lothane, King of Kent. There were rights 

 of free warren, and were from the sea attached to it. J These 

 early tnned lands were, as we shall presently find, protected from 

 innundation by their embankments, and thus prevented from 

 that accumulation of soil which has raised the surrounding 

 marsh lands. 



Below Grove Ferr)' the ancient Stour emptied itself into the 

 Wantsum. I propose, in the next place, to trace some of the 

 historical data which mark the great changes in this area. 



Lambarde, in his Perambulations, says — " Bede hath mention 

 of a water in Kent, running by Reculver, which is called Genlade. 

 This name was afterwards sounded Yenlade, which is one mouth 

 of Wantsume. That water, which now sundereth the Isle of 

 •Greane from the hundred of Hoo, hath two such mouthes — the 

 one of which, opening into the Thamyse called the North- 

 mouth, is called North Yenlet : and the other, receiving the 

 fall of Medway, is called Colemouth." The entire course of 



♦ Thorn. Chronicle relates King Stephen gave to the Abbot of St. Augustine 



the Mill which he had within the city near Eastbridge. 

 t Hasted's History of Canterbury, 187. 

 + Hasted's History of Kent. 



