The Roman Structure Within Faversham Stone Chapel

Roman brickwork within Faversham Stone Chapel

In a field in Kent the ruins of an ancient building of uncertain origin lies. It is called Faversham Stone Chapel, or alternately Stone-next-Faversham, and was known as the Church of Our Lady of Elverton – or Our Lady of Elwarton – from the 7th century until the 16th century, when it was abandoned after falling into a state of disrepair. The building was not, however, forgotten. From the 18th century onwards it became the occasional subject of archeological interest because it was clear that this was no ordinary church for, as Hasted pointed out in 1798, within the ruins of the Stone Chapel there are:

“a number of Roman bricks … interspersed among the flints and in the midst of the south wall of it, there is a separate piece of a Roman building about a rod in length, and near three feet high, composed of two rows of Roman tiles, of about fourteen inches square each, and on them are laid small stones levelled but of no regular size or shape, for about a foot high, and then tiles again, and so on alternately.”