Site Code. LAUGHTON13Site identification

and addressLaughton Place

County, district

and / or boroughEast Sussex

O.S. grid ref. TQ484114Geology. Gault Clay, AlluviumProject number. SNUFFLER1301Fieldwork type. GeophysicsSite type.Date of fieldwork. September 2012, April 2013Sponsor/client. Ringmer Roman Study GroupProject manager. David StaveleyProject

supervisor.Period summary Roman

Project summary.

(100 word max)A magnetometer survey on the site of a Roman road at Laughton Place

A Geophysical Survey at Laughton Placeby David Staveley

Introduction

This survey is the result of a search for a connecting Roman road between the Greensand Way at Barcombe and the Pevensey road at Arlington. Laughton Place was chosen for a survey by following the Roman road east from the previous survey at Downsview Farm (Staveley 2012). A magnetometer survey was undertaken with the Ringmer Roman Study Group, to try to locate more of the Roman road as it travels east.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the members of the Ringmer Roman Study Group for help with the surveys, and the Landmark Trust for allowing the survey to go ahead.

Archaeological Background

Laughton Place itself is a medieval moated site of a significant size, with the buildings being replaced by new brick structures in the 16th century. Little remains of the original buildings as they were mostly destroyed in the 1930's (Farrant, Howard, Rudling, Warren, Whittick (FHRWW) 1991).

The Roman road under investigation is assumed to run between two major Roman settlements located at Bridge Farm, Barcombe and Arlington Reservoir. This would have formed part of one long road between Hardham, near Chichester, to the west and Pevensey to the east. This section of the road joins two roads previously investigated by Ivan Margary, the Sussex Greensand Way to the west (1965 p.165) and the Pevensey Road to the east (1965 p.185).

Methodology

The magnetometer survey was undertaken using a Bartington GRAD601-2 using 40x40m grids, with lines spaced 1 metre apart and 4 readings per metre along the line. The data was processed using Snuffler with despike, destripe and interpolation (from 1.0m x 0.25m to 0.5m x 0.25m) filters applied. The data is displayed with a clipping range of +/- 2 nT.

Site Overview

The survey areas are shown in green shading. The likely extent of the floodplain is shown as blue shading. The source of the road is shown as a black dashed line. The course of a pipe that might be confused for the course of the road on aerial photographs is shown as a red dashed line.

The northern edge of the moat of Laughton Place seems to have been built up against the Roman road, suggesting that the road was still in use during the medieval period. This is confirmed by the discovery of a medieval wooden bridge crossing the moat on the north side (FHRWW 1991 p.102). On its course east, the road curves very slightly north, to avoid the worst of the water in Field B, before turning sharply south to cross the floodplain of the stream over the causeway. The course of the road past this crossing is not known yet, but is merely shown here as continuing in a straight line.

The site for the survey at field A was chosen because of a pair of linear features in the field, one of which could have been the road, but it turned out neither were. The site for the survey in field B was chosen because there was what looked like a causeway across the floodplain on aerial photographs. This was found to be correct, with a wide dry raised area crossing the boggy ground.

Positioning

The grids were set out and recorded in metres using a total station on an arbitrary grid. For each survey, two resection points and the survey area are described in the table below. The location of these points are also shown on the interpretation images.

Description Grid North Grid East

Field A

RS1: Centre of N face of E gatepost of W gate into S field 537.62 439.03

RS2: Centre of W face of E gatepost of E gate into S field 476.64 564.92

G1 500 500

G2 620 500

Field B

RS1: SW corner of S stile post in NR corner of field 497.76 550.30

RS2: W edge of post with arm in SE corner of field 350.32 532.03

G1 500 500

G2 380 500

Field A Results

Field A Interpretation

Modern features are shown in red, geological features are shown in purple and archaeological features are shown in green. The course of the road is shown as a black dashed line. The line of two linear features noted as possible candidates for the road are shown as red dashed lines. The northern of these two linear features is shown as an old field boundary on an old estate map (FHRWW 1991 p.109). The southern linear feature seems to be a continuation of the field boundary to the west, but is not visible on any maps.

Some of the Roman road surface is visible on the results, with most of the centre of the agger having been ploughed away. The surface of the road in this area, if it is anything like that at Downsview Farm to the west, would be constructed from flint nodules from the South Downs with a scattering of iron slag from bloomeries in the Weald, perhaps for repair. It is this slag that is being picked up by the magnetometer, as flint would be invisible. Side ditches are also slightly visible either side of the road surface, roughly 20 metres apart, which is the same as found at Downsview Farm and Arlington.

Field B Results

Field B Interpretation

Modern features are in red, geological features in purple and archaeological features are in green. The road makes a sharp bend here as it turns to cross the floodplain on the causeway. Its apparent increase in thickness is due to the construction of the causeway itself. The surface of the road seems to be in much better condition than in field A, no doubt because the boggy land meant ploughing was not a good idea. Whilst the agger of the road is quite visible as the causeway crosses the floodplain, it is not visible higher up.

References

A Geophysical Survey at Downsview Farm, Ringmer, Staveley, D., Grey lit. report 2012Laughton Place: A Manorial and Architectural History, Farrant, J., Howard, M., Rudling, D., Warren, J., Whittick, C., Sussex Archaeological Collections 1991Roman Ways in the Weald, Margary, I.D., Phoenix House 1965 (3rd Ed.)