Faversham Stone Chapel also known as Our Lady of Elwarton, is a medieval chapel built on top of a Romano-British mausoleum. The chapel is located in what is thought to have been the Roman settlement of

Durolevum Durolevum was a Roman settlement in Britain. The only surviving mention of it from antiquity appears in the Antonine Itinerary, where it forms part of the Roman equivalent of Watling Street, connecting Rutupiae (Richborough) to Londinium (Londo ...

, near the modern town of

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient Briti ...

, in Kent, England. It is the only chapel in England known to incorporate the remains of an ancient shrine or mausoleum.

Romano-British construction

Roman Durolevum

Although the site now lies in a rural area on the outskirts of modern

, during Roman times the area was well populated. There was probably a Roman army camp located at Judd Hill, where there is evidence of a large structure (possibly a fort), and where numerous Roman artefacts have been found. A Roman cemetery containing the remains of some three hundred and eighty-seven burials is located a few hundred yards east from the church, and a number of Roman coins and other artefacts have been discovered nearby. In 2012, Paul Wilkinson and a team of archeologists discovered and excavated an enormous cockpit-style Roman theatre seating up to 12,000 in Faversham; it is believed to be the first theatre of its kind to be built in Britain. This evidence of Roman occupation has led researchers to believe that Faversham may be the site of Roman

, mentioned in the '' Antonine Itinerary''. Opus Signinum

Roman structure

The Roman building is roughly square, with walls about 17 feet long and about 3 feet wide. The walls were built using a typically Roman technique, with a flint foundation and courses of

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertin ...

blocks alternating with courses of red bricks. The windowless structure had a vaulted roof, and a monolithic door constructed of

greensand Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called ''glauconies'' and co ...

stone. The cill of the doorway is still in place. The floor of the structure was originally

opus signinum ''Opus signinum'' ('cocciopesto' in modern Italian) is a building material used in ancient Rome. It is made of tiles broken up into very small pieces, mixed with mortar, and then beaten down with a rammer. Pliny the Elder in his '' Natural Histor ...

, a hard waterproof concrete made with broken-down tiles or bricks, giving it a reddish colour. The walls were finished with plaster, which was painted red, and was possibly decorated with frescoes. The structure of the foundation suggests that this structure was a Roman mausoleum, though in the absence of burials, this interpretation cannot be confirmed. As there is no

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

or cemetery nearby, alternative explanations of the structure are that it was a Romano-Pagan temple or a small Christian shrine.

Medieval church

After the Roman structure fell into disrepair, it is possible that a timber-built church Saxon church existed on the site. By the medieval era, a flint church was built over the remains of the earlier Roman building, making use of its surviving walls. It is possible that a Saxon church built of wood also existed prior to the building of the medieval church. The medieval builders used the Roman building as the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

of the church, and the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

was built to the west. The nave and the chancel were expanded in the 13th century, and

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es were added on one side. The green sandstone door frames were used in the buttresses, and can still be seen today. The church was reported to be in disrepair by 1511 and seems to have been abandoned by 1600. The chapel is designated as an

ancient monument In British law, an ancient monument is an early historical structure or monument (e.g. an archaeological site) worthy of preservation and study due to archaeological or heritage interest. The ''Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 ...

References

{{coord, 51.3162, 0.8565, display=title, region:GB, format=dms English Heritage sites in Kent Roman religious sites in England Religious buildings and structures in Kent Churches in Faversham