Discovery of the
Dover Bronze Age Boat

On the morning of 28th September, Keith Parfitt, Project Field Director for Canterbury Archaeological trust, and Dr. Martin Bates, of the Geoarchaeological Service Facility (G.S.F.) of the Institute of Archaeology in London, were working in a particularly deep (6 metre) waterlogged hole at the end of Bench Street, Dover, where a storm water pump for an underpass was to be sited. It was one of the deepest holes ever to be dug in the town centre. The hole had already produced parts of Dover's medieval town wall, supported on timber piles, and a section of a massively constructed Roman harbour wall. Dr. Bates had been particularly pleased to be able to collect samples of ancient valley sediments containing prehistoric plant and animal remains from such a depth.

Work was pretty well finished and a break for lunch imminent when Keith Parfitt became intrigued by an odd looking piece of wood which had been revealed earlier by a mechanical excavator. They were joined by the third team member, Barry Corke.

'We continued cleaning the exposed wood; clearly the machine had cut through an extensive timber structure : it could only be a boat. The situation became critical as the workmen returned from lunch ready to resume their excavation': Keith Parfitt

Senior staff representing the consulting engineers, Mott MacDonald, and contractors, Norwest Holst, and Paul Bennet, Director of C.A.T. were called and construction work was temporarily halted for the day to allow an initial assessment of the find. It had been 55 years since a comparable discovery of a well preserved prehistoric boat had been made in North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, and after discovery that vessel had all but disintegrated due to undeveloped conservation techniques.