Probable Roman Villa discovered at Otterpool Park
The remains of what is thought to be a Roman villa have been discovered by archaeologists at the Otterpool Park site. The team uncovered the remains last week and are now carefully exploring the area. Archaeological works at Otterpool are currently on-going and are still at an early stage. It is probable a Roman villa has been identified. The archaeological works are presently seeking to provide more information on the character, extent and significance of the probable villa; this information will be used to inform decisions relating to its future management. Such future management options might include formal designation (scheduling), but further assessment is still required it is understood.
Further archaeological works are proposed as part of the Otterpool Park development using a combination of intrusive and non-intrusive measures and we are currently discussing options for more investigations in various locations across the wider site. We, the Shepwayvox Team understand a more informative press release is to be prepared in due course once the archaeologists have finished on-site. Ultimately the archaeologists working on the scheme will prepare a detailed report on the findings which will be made publicly available.
The Shepwayvox Team
I wonder how Selwyn’ll get round this then?
I’m not sure but I seem to recall a historical map of the area in a consultants report only showed possible Saxon stuff… I might be wrong..
But I hope it’s as big as our well kept secret Roman Villa on the East Cliff – again I’m not sure but I think the East Cliff Villa has a tessalated floor http://www.canterburytrust.co.uk/folkestone/gallery01.htm
(Note the complete lack of vistor centre to attract tourists)
Hope they had planning permission for that villa, you know how difficult it is to get consent to build in the countryside! 😉
This is wonderful news and hopefully more historical remains will be found on site.
This maybe can be coupled with the results of the investigations into the Barrows in Barrowhill, Sellindge. The early history of this whole area needs investigating and made public.
A long time ago several important artifacts were found in the area opposite the Airport Café which can be seen in the National museum London.
me and friends found that villa 20 yrs ago! we told canterbury ach trust about it , i bet we dont even get a mention,amatures and detectorist find 90% of these sites and never get any recognition which is what most of us want ,a little acknowlegdement for for the huge amount of seaching/field walking we do. its no wonder people stop telling the achs about these site when they walk on to them and say LOOK WHAT WE’VE DISCOVERED ! wankers
That is very true Dave. If it wasn’t for amaturs out there searching, then half these sites wouldn’t’ve been found. Yes, as you’ve mentioned. Vigorous m*sterb*ters, the lot em.
This has probably been known about for many years as this piece of land looks to have been kept aside from ploughing since at least 1960’s.
no it wasnt known it was a sheep field, if it was known ron6a it would have had been mentioned in the s.m.r. which it wasnt . there was no reason to hide sites then as there wasnt a metal detector/ night hawk problem.
Very true. I’ve been studying the SMR & Pastscape for years & nothing has ever come up. Well done to you Dave, if did find this site years ago. Shame on the person/s who ignored your report of its existence.
I am trying to remain positive about this but the more I look the more it looks wrong! The location is correct, as I have been there but the contents of the trenches look too clean and uniform. No tumbled down walls, just even clearly defined edges all the same height. There must be at least 4 trenches, all with large wall sections. This would cover an area larger than Lullingstone or East Weir.
In reply to:I am trying to remain positive about this but the more I look the more it looks…
The trenches do look very clean as you say – but then perhaps the photos show the situation after the “tumbled down rubble” had been removed or perhaps the rubble was robbed out for Westenhanger Castle?
All the same it looks like Selwyn’s project will be on hold for further investigation.
when we walked this field 20 yr back an old farm hand told us that there was once an old stable in the field , we found early saxon pottery fragment and brooch near the parish boundry, bronze age flints including 2 pigmy barbed and tanged arrowheads in a cluster in the middle of the field, late iron age pottery mixed in with the roman near the road, the roman pottery we found had few table wares mainly storage and cooking wares, an interesting area is the boggy part next to the stream this must have been a pond in the roman period as we found half a dozen fake silver coins and twisted broken brooches scattered around the edge of this boggy zone. i do hope they will look at this area