First discovered in 1880 and subsequently excavated over a number of years by the Rev T S Cooper, High Biddings Field in Whitebeech, about a mile east of Chiddingfold, is the site of the largest Roman building known in Surrey. While Cooper failed to publish a report, he did make notes and plans and these were the basis for Marian and John Gower's report on the site which was published in Volume 75 of the Collections nearly 100 years after the actual excavation (Cooper et al 1984).

The report showed that the hilltop field contained a complex and unusual Roman building about 100m long and 25m wide. While this has been described as a Villa' in the past, no mosaics or bath-house were found, but there were a number of strange stone tanks and other external features and, taken together, these might hint at a religious purpose for the site (Bird 2002). Be that as it may, a review of the site several years ago, as part of the Monuments Monitoring Programme, showed that the actual position of the building within the field was uncertain and it was, therefore, not clear that the correct area had been scheduled.

As a result, in 2002 a team from the Society carefully field-walked the hilltop in 10m grids and, among other things, recorded a concentration of Roman roof and floor tile in a north/south band across the centre of the field, which coincided with a slight terrace cut into the slope of the hill (Graham & Howe 2002). This seemed to indicate the position of the building and certainly fitted with such few locational details as are shown on Cooper's plan. Following a resistivity survey, which failed to show any features, English Heritage gave consent for a limited trial excavation just down slope from the terracing and this produced evidence for a very large posthole and associated floor - almost certainly part of a substantial timber building of Roman date (Graham & Graham 2005).

The acquisition of a magnetometer by the Society allowed a further geophysical survey to be carried out, which showed that the site of the building was more or lesssurrounded by a 'D' shaped enclosure with a curving approach track from the west and associated paddocks (Graham & Graham 2008). While Cooper had in fact found part of this feature, he had not realised that it was a ditch, nor that it encircled most of the site.

In order to confirm the position and condition of the Roman building and to date the surrounding enclosure ditch and paddocks, English Heritage kindly gave consent for a number of trenches to be opened across the site. This work has just been completed by a team from the Society and, as usual with these things, under the most appalling weather conditions with icy temperatures and strong winds for much of the time.

The results can be summarised as both good and bad. The good news is that the enclosure is Late Iron Age in date, as might be expected. The section showed a 'V shaped ditch about 2m wide and 1m deep that contained a number of wheel-thrown potsherds, including a large part of a globular beaker and a grey ware bowl, which had been deposited in the secondary fill (see frontispiece). To the west of this enclosure the geophysics had also shown three sides of a rectangular enclosure and this produced Roman pottery from the ditch fill, which has now been dated to the 2nd century AD. This would mean that this enclosure wascreated after the Iron Age enclosure had fallen out of use, but before the mainbuildings were constructed in the 3rd and 4th centuries.

Sue Janaway giving a final cleaning to the Iron Age Ditch

Less good however is the fact that, despite trial trenching across the site, little or no trace could be found of Cooper's Roman building. The estimated position of the hypocaust reported by Cooper and hinted at by the magnetometer results, indeed proved to consist of a large deep rectangular pit, cut into the underlying natural gravel (Head), the fill of which contained Romano-British pot and tile, but also the occasional piece of clay pipe stem. This is consistent with Cooper's report that the farmer at the time had robbed much of the stone from this part of the site. Elsewhere two parallel trenches were recorded, which in all probability mark the line of the robbed-out footings of the Roman building. These were very shallow and it seems likely that only very slight footings were needed for the building, given the firm nature of the underlying gravel. The fact that the whole site has also been deep ploughed has, therefore, probably removed any other faint traces that might have survived the, apparently extensive, 19th century robbing of the walls. Unfortunately, while some of Cooper's outlying features may still survive further down the slope, the main building appears now only to exist as a scatter of tile, stone fragments and pot in the plough soil.

This was not the result that we had hoped for and is a sad end to the story of Surrey's largest and most enigmatic Roman building. It was little compensation to the diggers, who had endured cold and windy conditions for most of the fortnight, to know that they had the distinction of having removed such an important site from the record of surviving archaeology in the County. On the other hand the project has produced evidence for human occupation of the hilltop since the Mesolithic and, in particular, in the Late Iron Age and has also hinted at a possible timber precursor to Cooper's stone building.Our thanks are due to Mr N Cherriman, the landowner, who kindly gave permission for the work, to English Heritage for Scheduled Monument Consent and, very far from least, to those hardy souls who came out digging day after day despite the weather. A full report will appear in the Collections in due course.

References

Bird, D G, 2002 Chiddingfold Roman villa: a suggested reinterpretation, SyAC, 89, 245-248

Cooper, T S, Gower, J L, & Gower, M, 1984  The Roman villa at Whitebeech, Chiddingfold:excavations in 1988 and subsequently, SyAC, 75, 57-83

Graham, D, & Graham, A, 2005 Trial   trenching on the Roman site at Whitebeech, Chiddingfold (copy in SyAS library, Guildford)

Graham, D, & Graham, A, 2008 Magnetometer survey of the Roman buildings at Chiddingfold,SyAS Bulletin, 412, 1-3

Graham, D, & Howe, T, 2002 Fieldwalking at Chiddingfold, SyAS Bulletin, 362, 1-3