Kent A

Parameters

Description

This cadastre is linked to Roman roads leaving Canterbury (Durovernum) : the road south east to Dover (Dubris) and the road north east towards Sturry. These roads are at right angles; their initial segments probably coincide with the decumanus and kardo maximus of the centuriation. The proposed reconstruction also obeys the constraint that the road north from Dover forms the diagonal of centuries . Such a hypothesis would

There are many features on modern 1:50,000 maps which correspond to this grid, and which could thus be surviving traces of the limites of the proposed centuriation.

Note: this image is based upon information available in 1993. There is now a new map.

Based on the 1986 Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 map with the permission of the Controller of her Majesty's Stationery Office "C" Crown Copyright.

The Kent A cadastre in Romney Marsh

Romey marsh lies at the extreme south west of Kent.

It is composed of three main groups of soils:

Based on the 1985 Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 map with the permission of the Controller of her Majesty's Stationery Office "C" Crown Copyright.

The map also shows the possible traces of limites at intervals of 355m. These features are roads, tracks, paths and ditches in today's landscape. One of them corresponds to a narrow band of new marsh soils running north west to south east through the old marsh soils. This is 45 centuries from the Canterbury-Dover road, a probable major axis. This may be compared with the Roman canal in the Lindum A cadastre, which is 90 centuries from a probable major axis, and hence also probably a quintarius.

The possible cadastral traces in the marsh appear to be much less evident in new marsh soils than elsewhere. In order to quantify this effect, these data have been treated using the IDRISI GIS system. The marsh can be divided into bands at the same distance from the edge of the new marsh. The figure below shows this.

The density of traces at a given distance from the edge can then be plotted.

This shows that density of possible cadastral traces is low in areas inundated since Roman times, high in areas flooded little (if at all) and highest on the boundary. This is to be expected, since the construction of sea defences would tend to fossilise old patterns of land management.


Last updated on 13 August 2009 by John Peterson

(e-mail j.peterson@uea.ac.uk)