Site Code. SELMESTON12 Site identification Selmeston, East Sussex and address County, district East Sussex and / or borough O.S. grid ref. TQ510069 Geology. Lower Greensand and Gault Clay Project number. SNUFFLER1203 Fieldwork type. Excavation Site type. Date of fieldwork. 05/05/12 Sponsor/client. Nick Coleman Project manager. David Staveley Project supervisor. Period summary Project summary. (100 word max) Various An excavation at Selmeston on the course of the Roman road known by Ivan Margary as Route 142.

Excavation on the Course of a possible Roman Road at Selmeston, East Sussexby David StaveleyIntroduction Ivan Margary's work in Sussex is well known, and deservedly so. In 2012, the author was given the opportunity to excavate a section across the possible course of one of these roads, that of Margary's Route 142 at Selmeston (Margary 1949 p.188-192). In the 1970's, the owners of the house just to the east of the church had seen what could have been the road, during the excavation of a sewage pipe trench across 'Slubby Lane', the track that passes south of the church and leads to the 'Green House'. Though memories were not exact, it was recalled that the road surface was seen about 2 feet down, with the road surface, slightly cambered, being about 15 feet across, with ditches either side. Though Margary's proposed line was slightly to the north of Slubby Lane, these details made an investigation worthwhile. Acknowledgements The author wishes to thanks the Coleman family for access to their land, and to Nick Coleman for instigating the investigation, and for the use of his Bobcat digger. Methodology The evaluation trenches were cut with the foot wide bucket of a bobcat digger as an initial method of assessing what lay underground before excavation began. Unfortunately, no further archaeological investigation was deemed necessary. Additionally, pottery was collected from the surface of the field to the south. Geology The excavation site lies on the border between Lower Greensand to the north and Gault Clay to the south. The Greensand only was visible in the evaluation trenches. The Roman Road There have been question marks raised regarding Route 142 in the area in recent years. East of the River Cuckmere, Margary's line deviates significantly from the true course starting at his dogleg at TQ547066. Using geophysics and excavation (Chuter 2007), the road has been found to continue straight on. Unfortunately, the point at which the road would have crossed the river has been obliterated by the building of the reservoir, but there is now some suspicion that both the crossing and the road continuing west were both some distance to the north of Margary's line. West of the river, lacking any better evidence, Margary follows the curve of the road as it passes Chilver bridge farm, before crossing field east of Berwick railway station. A resistivity survey in the field immediately to the east of the station (Chuter 2007) failed to produce any evidence of the road. West of the railway line and road, Margary's course climbs the hill towards Stonery Farm, and it is here (TQ524068) that Margary (1949 p.191,200,201) excavated his section number 44. He found what he thought was the Roman road, but there are problems with his interpretation. Firstly, the road he found was composed of gravel, where the road east of the river is made of flint. Secondly, there is an outcropping of geological gravel at this point, which is scattered across the field.

Further west, Margary's line follows several sections of field boundary. Where this meets the Green House, the track deviates, and Margary projects the course of his road straight on from the field boundary line until it he ends it at the main road passing through Selmestion, another of his roads. Fig. 1 : Location

Fig 2 : Site A

Archaeology In The Local Area There has previously been a large amount of archaeological interest in the area, especially in the area of the sand quarries to the east of the excavation area (Holloway 1979, Drewett 1979, Rudling 1985) where occupation areas from the mesolithic, neolithic, bronze age, iron age, Roman and medieval periods were found. The location of pottery found during the course of the investigation is shown in figure 1, and was collected from the field to the south of the survey area. The spread of pottery seems limited to the edge of the field as shown, keeping mostly to the greensand. Similar to the excavation reports, a variety of pottery was found in the field, with Roman being only a small part of that. The majority being sandy wares with flint grog inclusions.

Excavation Three trenches were dug in the area of the original sewer excavation, to try and find the road that was originally found in the 1970s. Whilst the current tarmac road could not reasonably be cut with the digger, small areas were available to either side. Trench 1 Trench 1 was dug to the north side of road. A ditch was found cut into the earth by the side of the road. The lower fill was a mixture of chalk blocks and brick rubble, in which was the collapsed remains of a terracotta pipe. The upper fill of the ditch, close to the surface, was sandy gravel. Nearer the road, large chalk blocks lay near the surface. In this trench, the current road was slightly undercut, revealing a solid mass of chalk and brick to a depth of about 75cm. The natural greensand was reaches across the entire length of the trench. Trench 2 Trench 2 was dug to the south side of road. A collapsed terracotta pipe was found fairly near the surface towards the southern end of the ditch. More chalk blocks were found near the surface and near the road, in the same manner as in trench 1, but not quite so numerous. Again the greensand was reached at the bottom of the trench. Trench 3 A wide, deep, pipe trench was found, backfilled with soil and chalk blocks, and a terracotta pipe was found intact at the bottom, nearly a metre down. More chalk blocks were found near the surface and near the road in the same manner as in trenches 1 and 2. The greensand was not reaches across the entire length of this trench due as it was decided to leave the pipe intact. Discussion The features found were all modern. It is possible that the chalk blocks found were mistaken for a Roman road at the time of the Sewer pipe excavation, though the recollection was that the road seen was lower down than the depth of these chalk blocks. Only a handful of flints were found, which would be the road surface of choice for the Romans in this area. It is also possible that the ditches containing the terracotta pipes were mistaken for the side ditches of the Roman road. Whilst it is unlikely that the Roman road followed the course of Slubby Lane, Margary's course has not been conclusively disproved, as that passes slightly further to the north. The Roman occupation in the area may not necessarily point to a roadside settlement, with the road being the cause of the settlement's location. The occupation from previous periods demonstrates that the area was a good choice for habitation without it. References Chuter, Greg, A Roman Roadside Settlement at Arlington, Uni. Of Sussex MA Thesis 2007 Drewett, P., An Excavation at Selmeston, East Sussex, SAC 117, 1979 p.240-244 Holloway, A.E., Mesolithic & Later Finds at Selmeston & Berwick, SAC 117, 1979 p.244-247 Margary, Ivan, Roman Ways in the Weald, Phoenix House 1949 Rudling, D., Recent Archaeological Excavations at Selmeston, East Sussex, SAC 123, 1985 p.1-25