POST-MEDIEVAL GAMING MARBLES,
BEST LANE, CANTERBURY
A total of sixteen gaming marbles were found during excavations by CAT in 1996 at the Friars Car Park (located at the corner of The Friars and Best Lane).
Documentary evidence indicates this area of Canterbury has been occupied by buildings since at least the mid twelfth century. Early historic maps from the sixteenth century show that the land was occupied by properties that were possibly related to commercial as well as residential use.
The whole site appears to have been levelled towards the end of the eighteenth century ahead of the construction of a row of houses facing Best Lane.
The gaming marbles were recovered from deposits associated with late eighteenth-century levelling deposits.
Date: Post-medieval (end of 18th Century)
OBJECT
Origin and discovery
The marbles comprise a total of sixteen gaming pieces. Three of the marbles are formed from naturally rounded flint pebbles. Five are from a natural pale grey marble (or fine-grained mudstone). This marble is very dense and has fine calcite veining, some of which forms perfect circles within the marble. They may have been cut with the intention of using the veining as decoration. Eight marbles are from a ceramic material, possibly a stoneware or a slaggy glass-like substance. Several pieces have blistered surfaces from over-firing and a natural ash glaze, giving a dark purplish-brown sheen. Most of these have a twist or pontille mark; a scar that is probably the result of manufacturing processes. The manufacture location of the marbles isn’t known. The flint pebbles could have been collected from a Kent source. However, imports of thousands of German stoneware marbles into England are recorded in late seventeenth-century documents. The marbles were recovered from floor deposits and layers of demolition and levelling material, associated with buildings dated to the end of the eighteenth century. They may form one collection of gaming marbles, or are an example of several sets, although the former seems more likely. Excavations on the site showed that between the late fourteenth/early fifteenth century and the eighteenth century, a sequence of at least six buildings were constructed on the plot. Building materials found from the site included blocks of reused, worked Caen stone suggesting that material was taken from a religious building after the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. The whole site appears to have been levelled towards the end of the eighteenth century and a row of three houses was constructed facing Best Lane. In the mid to late nineteenth century, a substantial building (part of a tannery) was constructed to the rear of No 1 and parallel to the Friars. Nos 1 and 2 Best Lane and the tannery buildings located to their rear, were demolished following bomb damage in the Second World War. The southernmost house (No 3 Best Lane) survived.
Use
The marbles would have been used as gaming pieces, but it is not known which games were played. Marbles have been used in games for over 4000 years. Some of the earliest examples include small balls of stone that were found on a site in the Indus Valley, dated to as early as 2500 BC. Gaming marbles are mentioned in Roman texts and there are many examples of marbles recovered from ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian sites. Various games can be played with marbles. One popular game in this country was ‘ring taw’ where a ring is drawn on the ground and a number of small marbles placed within it. Players then take turn to flick a larger ‘taw’ marble at them in order to knock them out of the ring. Several well-known and everyday phrases are associated with playing marbles. They include “knuckle down”: the position adopted at the start line at the beginning of a match. The player begins with his or her knuckle against the ground; and “keepsies” (or “for keeps”): the player keeps all the marbles he or she wins. Gaming marbles were frequently played in pubs and The Thomas Beckett public house lies very close to the site at 21 Best Lane. The pub is first thought to have been a coffee house. In 1775 it became a Trade Club for a group of bricklayers when the house was registered as the Bricklayers Arms. A police report from 1849 mentions a skittle alley on the premises indicating that pub games were enjoyed here!
ARCHIVE
Current Location
Canterbury Archaeological Trust archives.
Catalogue Entry
Site code: FCP 96
Total pieces 16. The marbles are of three materials:
1. Naturally rounded flint pebbles:
FN.640 (447); 2 pieces.
FN.638B (339); 1 piece.
2. A natural pale grey marble (or fine-grained mudstone). Probably marble or limestone because it reacts strongly to dilute Hydrochloric acid:
FN.985B (582); 1 piece (split in half).
FN.39 (582); 3 pieces.
FN.638A (339); 1 piece.
3. A ceramic material possibly stoneware or a slaggy glass-like substance:
FN.985A (582); 1 piece.
FN.541 (141); 1 piece.
FN.639 (447); 3 pieces (dark purplish).
FN.690 (446); 1 piece.
FN.637 (339); 2 pieces (dark grey).
