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Site Code. TESTON12

Site identification

and address

Hop Garden Stables, Teston, Maidstone

County, district

and / or boroughKent

O.S. grid ref. TQ699532

Geology. Hythe Sandstone & Atherfield Clay

Project number. SNUFFLER1205

Fieldwork type. Geophysics

Site type.

Date of fieldwork. June 2012

Sponsor/client. Linda Dale & Simon Elliot

Project manager. David Staveley

Project

supervisor.

Period summary Roman

Project summary.

(100 word max)

An earth resistance survey on the site of Teston Roman villa

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A Geophysical Survey on Teston Roman Villaby David Staveley

Introduction

The site sits on the northern bank of the River Medway, and rises up to the north. A Roman bathhouse had previously been excavated to the north-west (TQ697533) and evidence of Roman

building material had been found in the ploughed field to the north (TQ699533). This building

material extended to the south into the site under investigation, and some of it is visible eroding out

the side of the hill.

The hill itself slopes down gently towards the valley floor, with the upper third composed of Hythe

Sandstone and the lower two-thirds Atherfield Clay.

The owner was interested to find out how far the archaeology extended into her land, so an earth

resistance survey was commissioned to attempt to find the walls of any Roman buildings.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Linda Dale and Simon Elliot for making this survey possible and

Brian Powell for helping out with the survey.

Methodology

The survey was undertaken using a TR Systems earth resistance meter, sampling every one metre

square. The first survey area, Area A, was done in response to the masonry visible in the narrow

track to the north, where high resistance readings were found adjacent to that masonry.

It was then decided to scan the rest of the site without recording, to see if there were similar high

resistance readings, indicating further walls. Whilst there were some broad areas of high and low

resistance, none were as strong as in area A, and may have been due to geological changes.

Scanning in the final field checked, Area B, revealed a slight high resistance linear running north-

south, plus strong high resistance in the steep north-east part, where Linda indicated that masonry

had been found. It was decided to target this area for a further survey.

The data was processed using Snuffler geophysics software, with despike and interpolation filters

applied.

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Positioning

The 20 metre grids were set out using tapes on an arbitrary grid and recorded using a total station.

Two resection points and the survey area are described in the table below. The location of these

points are also shown on the interpretation image.

Description Grid North Grid East

RS1: NE corner of small building in SW corner of site 365.59 642.84

RS2 : W side of large post jutting out in NE corner of site 595.99 525.51

A1 477.46 530.91

A2 478.75 501.17

A3 438.88 501.17

A4 437.57 530.99

B1 590.84 561.88

B2 550.92 561.19

B3 551.32 501.43

Results

Area A

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Area B

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Interpretation

Strong high resistance features are shown in light green. Weak high resistance features are shown in

dark green.

Area A

The area of strong high resistance at the top of Area A relates to the masonry found at the northern

edge of the field. It only extends about 5 metres into the field, but it is about 24 metres wide. While

it is difficult to judge from such a small area, it looks to represent at least 2 rooms of a masonry

building. This feature is the highest resistance feature in area A, but there are other linear features.

Attached to the southern part of the western end of the main feature is what looks to be a room

roughly 9 metres square, with linear features heading off to the east and west. The eastern linear

seems to be crossed by a further linear features in the eastern part of Area A.

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Area B

The area of strong high resistance at the top of Area B sits on or near what looks to be an old stream

like depression, rising slightly to the west and steeply to the east. It is larger than the high resistance

area in Area A, and extends much further into the field, though individual rooms cannot be made

out. Just as with Area A, there are further ephemeral features surrounding the main high resistance

feature. To the west and east, there are features which seem to broadly follow the same alignment asthe strongest feature, but to the south, there are a number of linear features on a different alignment,

describing what looks to be a number of rooms, one of them possibly apsidal, and with an entrance

to the south. A pair of linear features head south from the western side of this, almost like the wing

of a villa, which is the north-south feature picked up during scanning.

Discussion

The features found seem to be part of a complex series of buildings, perhaps representing different

phases, given the different alignments found in Area B. Due to their ephemeral nature, the exact

form of the building is difficult to discern, and the interpretation image should only be taken as a

rough guide. The ephemeral linear features in Area A and B may appear as such due to either alighter construction, greater depth or stone robbing. The strong features found may only show as

such because they are eroding out of the side of the hill, whereas the rest of the features are further

buried by colluvium from higher up. The scanning performed between the two surveys would have

little chance of picking up features as slight as these, so there could well be more building across

the site that were missed.