Excavation by J Harte and H Waterhouse for Bourne Hall Museum and NAS [now EEHAS] in the bed of the lake which had become dry. Preliminary examination in 1990 produced 38 1st to 3rd century Roman coins from one sector. A trench indicated that dredging had removed most material above the natural Thanet Sand. Gravel-filled pockets in the sand were however found to contain animal bones and IA, RB or Saxon pottery. Various walls, mostly presumably earlier retaining walls for the lake bank, were also noted. (265). It may be suggested that the Roman coins were offerings at the original spring.