Findings of broken pottery and food waste have taken the archaeological dig in Woolcomber Street as far back as the 13th century.

Canterbury Archaeological Trust is carrying out the excavation from Townwall Street to Woolcoomber Street, opposite Dover Leisure Centre and to Russell Street car park.

This will be completed before the St James’ development takes place in the autumn.

Keith Parfitt, site director, said the team was now finding a lot of domestic waste from an area that was used as a dump. They found animal bones, remains of shellfish and pottery dating back to 1,400 AD.

He said: “In Townwall Street there are 13th century remains with masses of detail starting to come up from that area.

“If you get enough then you know you can start looking at what people were eating at different dates. We can see they had a lot of fish in this busy corner of Dover and animals from further inland as well.

“We are peeling back the layers of time.”

There have also been other findings of a copper alloy belt buckle, a copper alloy handle, and a furnace or kiln.

The Mercury previously reported that the diggers had uncovered a Victorian cellar, which Mr Parfitt now says was actually added on to a much earlier building. He believes this building next to St James’ Street was from the 1400s.

He said: “We know from the older structures of Dover that the Victorian town plan from ordnance surveys did preserve quite a few areas of older Dover.

“We now realise the latest buildings which we didn’t think were of much archaeological interest are part of a long archeological history. It’s the last chapter in a long story of building work that have been added to and added to.”

There are three holes being dug out across the section and a viewing platform is now open to the public.

It will give people the chance to view the work as it is happening and see some of the artefacts that are uncovered.