Archaeology
In 1946 boys playing in overgrown areas of what is now called the Common and golf course found bits of pottery dating back to the 1st Century AD. A number of trenches were established the following year which unearthed up to a thousand more pieces. From 1949 to 2001 nothing more was done.
In 2002 Archaeological surveys using resistivity and magnetometry equipment from the University of Reading, as well as subsequent annual excavations, confirmed that an Iron Age settlement and a Roman villa were present on the site now occupied by parts of the golf course and Common at Horris Hill. In addition to more pottery of late Iron Age to late Roman, including a few pieces of Samian ware, numerous Roman coins have been unearthed, mainly from the 3rd and 4th century. The pottery assemblage and the coin finds would suggest that the villa was of fairly low-status. During the 2004 season 3 cremation urns were located and excavated at a depth of about 1.5m. What these finds do suggest strongly is that there was continuous occupation of the site spanning the period prior to the invasion of 43AD up to the time the Roman occupation ended in the early 5th century.
The 2005 season will focus on the Mound area once again. This is the very obvious earthwork in the middle of the Common about 100m east of the pottery and coin finds and about 130m away from the cremation urns. Previous trenches have failed to find any datable evidence although analysis of the trench cuts and positioning of postholes indicate that it had an extensive wooden palisade at some stage, possibly with smaller stakes pointing out at an angle to the uprights. Several of these postholes showed signs of heavy burning. The forthcoming season will set out to find some solid datable evidence in the area of the ditch as well as the radio-carbon dating of further charcoal findings.
Dating the earthwork will answer several questions as to its original purpose and whether it held any relationship to the Iron Age and/or Roman villa site.
Felix Beardmore-Gray
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
click here to see the results of the 2005 season