Surrey Archaeological Society

The Roman religious site at Wanborough (SU 9204 4958) has a long history of being damaged by treasure hunters and in many ways is the most notorious example of such activity in the country. Following the discovery of the site in the late 1970s a number of raids took place, leading to the mounting of a rescue excavation in 1985-6 (O’Connell & Bird 1994).

A small-scale archaeological investigation at the mouth of the cave was carried out on 18 May 2002 by a team from Surrey Archaeological Society. The work was requested by Waverley Borough Council’s Heritage Officer in advance of the installation of new wrought iron gates. The landowners kindly gave permission for the work.

For more information please view the attached report

The well-known Roman temples site at Wanborough lies north of the Hog’s Back between Farnham and Guildford. The site was first excavated in 1979, again in 1985/6 following large scale treasure hunting and most recently in 1999 when David Williams directed an excavation that revealed a second earlier circular temple (Surrey Archaeological Collections vols 75, 82 and 93 respectively).

Dry Hill Camp is a large enclosure of probable Iron Age date looking across the Eden/Medway Valley to the northern part of the Low Weald and North Downs. It is multi-vallate and lies just within Surrey, close to both Kent and Mid-Sussex. An excavation in 1932 recovered few finds and the site remained enigmatic. From 2011-2013 a level 3 tape and compass survey to check the condition of the earthworks was undertaken and a report is now available in the pdf attached below.

The Lithics Working Group has reassessed a collection of palaeolithic artefacts assembled by Henry Bury, a member of the Surrey Archaeological Society during the early 20th century, as well as the Geological Society and the Hampshire Field Club in which he was active into his 90’s. He published extensively on geology and palaeolithic artefacts in academic journals.

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who helped to make the latest season at Abinger such a success. It may seem odd to say that in view of our failure to finish the trench, but this was a result of finding that there was more surviving archaeology than anticipated. Much of this must be down to your hard work in tackling the difficulties of finding archaeological features in sand. As a result we have a much better understanding of the site and how to approach it in future.