Society of Bexhill Museums

THE very cold afternoon of February 4 did not deter a large and enthusiastic audience for the museum lecture given by David Rudling, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Sussex, whose subject was the Roman villas of the Ouse Valley and in particular the recently-excavated site at Barcombe.

Having been involved since 2001 with the excavations of the villa at Barcombe, the lecturer was undoubtedly the person to bring to life the excitement of the discovery.

He explained how Roman finds had been coming to the surface on farmland close to Barcombe church since the early 1990s and following a geophysical soil resistivity survey, excavations revealed a Romano-British winged corridor villa some 45 metres long and 20 metres wide.

Every summer season up to 2007 the site was excavated and 90 per cent of the villa was found, revealing evidence concerning the Romanisation of a late Iron Age-early Romano-British farmstead.

Work still continues during July and August on the excavation of a bath house in a nearby field.

We were also shown interesting slides of aerial photographs of 1986 which clearly indicated soil marks in a field at Beddingham, revealing a villa.

This caused great excitement among archaeologists who were then able to excavate, thanks to the interest of the farmer and his wife in whose land this was located.

The next lecture at St Augustine's Hall will be on Wednesday at 2.30pm when Tony Whitbread's subject is entitled Ecological Networks. Visitors will be very welcome.