Stane Street excavations - walk and lunch in local pub

Thursday June 18

Roman Studies Group is organising a vist to see the excavations taking place on Stane Street in Ockley which will include lunch and tea (if you so wish) at the local pub. The walk will be led by Chris Gibson who has been leading the work there.

10.30-11.00 Park, coffee, pre-order and pay for lunch at the Punchbowl Inn, Okewood Hill (near Ockley) RH5 5PU.

The Roman Studies Group is very pleased that Professor Anthony King, Emeritus Professor at Winchester University and a specialist in both animal bones and Roman archaeology, has kindly agreed to lead our 2026 RSG Study Day at East Horsley Village Hall on Friday 18 September 10.00am-3.30pm. The fee of £20 includes a sandwich lunch, coffee and tea. There is free parking at the Hall. 

As this is a hands-on event there is a limit of 20 places and bookings are now open via the book tab above. 

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Jessica Venner, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow to the final meeting of the winter 2026-7 talk series. Her research specialises in Roman gardens and diets, identity formation, architecture, and the history and archaeology of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The title of her talk will be added once it is forthcoming.

A Zoom link will be sent to RSG members a week before the talk. If you are a Surrey Archaeological Society member you can join RSG for free. Go to the membership page of the website to sign up.

David Rudling has kindly agreed to talk on  'Usurpers on Roman coinage in the Gallic Empire from the mid-3rd century AD' for our February Zoom meeting of the winter series 2026-7.

David is well known to Surrey Archaeologiccal Society and is a committee meber of RSG. He is Academic Director, Sussex Archaeology and History (https://www.sussexarchaeology.org/about-sah) and has more than 40 years experience in the field of archaeology in the UK.

A joint Zoom meeting is planned between Roman Studies Group and Surrey Archaeology and History on 20th January. Justine Bayley will be talking on the manufacture and decoration of Roman brooches (from a technical point of view, including gold working in Britain over a longer period). Justine is currently an Honorary Associate Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. She researches in archaeometallurgy, other high temperature technologies and archaeology, focusing on northern Europe and the British Isles.

We are pleased to announce that, for the December meeting of our winter talks series, we will be holding a in-person meeting at East Horsley Village Hall. A talk by James Bromwich on 'Commemorating the Dead: mausolea, towers and caskets' will be followed by a Christmas social event. This is for members only, giving RSG members the chance to socialise in person rather than meeting on Zoom.

Mike Fulford has kindly offered to talk to us on 'The Silchester Environs Project'. He led a research team in a five year project to explore the later prehistoric use of the c.140km2 landscape around Silchester Roman Town and its underlying Late Iron Age oppidum. Its base was an extensive desktop assessment containing a vast array of data, both old and new, which was incorporated in a project-wide GIS. It was further supported by various geophysics techniques, lidar, earthwork surveys, walkover reconnaissance, coring exercises and excavation.

A Zoom  talk on 'The Hallaton Helmet: A Conquest Period Mystery 

This event is now sold out. If you still wish to attend you can join a waiting list by emailing David Calow at  dm.calow@ntlworld.com.

The Roman Studies Group has arranged a Roman Glass Study Day to be led by John Shepherd. This will be held at East Horsley Village Hall on Saturday August 9 2025 from 10.15 to 3.15. The cost is £20 to include tea, coffee and a sandwich lunch. Free parking is available on site.

Roman Southampton was important but can be enigmatic, not least because so much material went into the River Itchen in the nineteenth century.