A Roman site at North Chailey
- By Chris Butler
During the construction of a
new bungalow at North Chailey, Jack Ellis noticed that a number of possible
archaeological features could be seen. Digging into one of the features Jack
recovered a complete Roman pot. He then contacted me through Anthony Dicks, and
after an initial visit to the site, with the help of some MSFAT members, a
small-scale excavation was carried out.
The features comprised a pit
(from which the complete pot, a piece of amphora and numerous pieces of iron
slag were recovered), a shallow gully running east to west, which also contained
pieces of pottery, iron slag, and some other finds, another small pit, and six
postholes. The postholes appeared to be arranged in two rows, and some had a
post pipe visible in section, showing that the post had been packed in with huge
quantities of iron slag.
The site appears to be part
of an iron-working site, perhaps a small roadside settlement located on the
ridge, with the postholes suggesting small rectangular buildings. There are
suggestions that the iron slag deposits extend southwards downslope for between
50-100 metres, indicating that this may be just a small part of a much larger
site.
- June 2004
2005 Update
More features have been found at the Roman
site at North Chailey. Two more post holes or pits were encountered during the
excavation of a pipe trench, together with more of the east-west gully
originally encountered last year. More pottery and two copper-alloy artefacts
were found in the gully feature.
We hope to return to this site later in
2005 and carry out some geophysics in the adjacent field. This may provide more
information about the size and extent of this site.
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