Following on from the successful gridded field survey at Chiddingfold last year, Dr David Bird suggested that a similar exercise be carried out in the field adjacent to the Roman bath house at Chatley Farm. The bath house was first noticed in 1942 exposed in a river bluff being cut by the Mole, which flows just to the east of Chatley Farm. The site was subsequently dug by Shepherd Frere (SyAC 50, 1946) and turned out to be a bath house of 4th century date. Frere however failed to find any further buildings and suggested that these originally lay to the east of the bath house and had subsequently been completely destroyed by the action of the river.
In 1979, the field containing the bath house was subject to deep ploughing. Mrs Ann Watson visited the site and recovered a quantity of Roman tile and pottery. As a result, Rob Poulton and Martin O’Connell carried out a limited geophysical survey and excavated three trenches (SyAC 77, 1986), none of which produced evidence for any further structures within the field, though the trench nearest the bath house produced quantities of Roman tile and pottery.
Over the last year or two the Roman Studies Group has been trying to located the line of the probable Winchester to London road which might, according to one current theory, pass through or close by Chatley Farm. As a result David Bird felt it was worth revisiting the site to see if any more information could be obtained using the same techniques that were so successful at Chiddingfold. A team from the group spent five days collecting material from within a series of 10-m grid squares (about 260 of them) set out over part of the field. All the material was processed and recorded by weight and count and then returned to the original square from which it came. The exercise can therefore be repeated in the future should anyone wish to do so. As the field was still under stubble and parts were obscured by weeds only the clearer sections were gridded, the remainder of the field being line walked.
The results seem to show that the scatter of Roman material originates from the area of the bath house and that there are no other obvious concentrations. All datable material recovered, including a sherd from a Nene Valley beaker and a coin of Magnentius, belong to the 4th century which would be consistent with the dating of the bath house itself. A series of auger holes were taken in a line south-east of, but away from, the bath house (which is a scheduled monument) and extended into the neighbouring field on slightly rising ground. These consistently showed a depth of about 35cm of grey sandy topsoil directly overlying the natural sand of the Bagshot Beds. In no case was there any evidence for occupation or building debris. A small sondage was cut by hand on the higher ground to obtain a slightly larger view of the soil profile, but again there was no sign of occupation material. The same field was subjected to a metal detector search, but again with negative results.
The lack of evidence for the existence of further Roman buildings within the area examined does not mean that none exist elsewhere and neither does it mean that the possible line of an east-west road does not pass through the farm. Indeed, there is an apparent droveway, just to the south of the survey area, the line of which would suit that for a road heading towards London from Winchester.
However, the evidence from the survey agrees with Frere’s and Poulton’s conclusions - that any villa once associated with the bath house is likely to have been washed away by the action of the river.
From other periods there appeared to be two concentrations of burnt and worked flint within the gridded area which must relate to prehistoric activity. Other individual finds included scrapers, cores and a barbed-and-tanged arrowhead. A few sherds of prehistoric pottery were recovered but only one sherd of medieval date was noted. While there was a general scatter of post-medieval tile there was very little recent pottery and surprisingly only four pieces of clay pipe were found. This is most unusual for a Surrey field and perhaps indicates a very low intensity of agricultural activity until fairly recent times. One fragment of shrapnel and a rifle bullet case perhaps result from military training during one of the World Wars.
