THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

FINDON'S ROMAN WELL

Copyright Valerie Martin 2002

The Romano-Britons built villas, sank wells and farmed the Findon countryside for some 400 years.  Aerial photographs of our area have revealed cropmarks of a large rectangular enclosure and probable buildings. The well in Findon indicates the depths that men were driven to in those days in order to extract that essential item for their survival — water.  This well has become known as the Roman Well but is considered by some to have been dug long before the Roman’s arrival but to avoid confusion I will continue to call it Roman.

The well was discovered on a cold January day in 1961 when a tractor driver was ploughing a field near Long Furlong opposite the Findon Cricket Club.  The wheel of the tractor sliced down through the thin covering of soil disguising its presence.  The driver suddenly saw the earth in front of him collapse and disappear.  He immediately braked but was unable to prevent the tractor from partially falling into the crater measuring about 8 ft. in diameter.  The depression was to prove to be the only Roman well found on the South Downs and at 270 ft. the deepest Roman well ever discovered in England.

The reappearance of the watering hole in the twentieth century roused special interest to local archaeologists, lying as it did adjacent to the site of a burnt down Romano-British villa.

The situation of the well is best described as being on the opposite side of the road to the Cricket Pitch on Long Furlong, A280 (grid reference TQ 119 097). 

There followed nine years of work by local archeologists, museum officials and members of caving societies.   After exploratory trenches were dug around the top of the well it was decided that it was probably of Roman date and connected with the villa and gave conclusive proof that there had been an early settlement in the area.

The well shaft was excavated on a part time basis and began with a section cut near its mouth.  The entrance to the well was found to be brick and the sides on the way down were earth.

A wooden platform was erected directly over the shaft with a scaffolding gantry.  The volunteer workers descended the well on a wooden seat lowered by a two-man barrage balloon winch.  A lifeline was connected to a parachute harness.  The excavated material was winched to the surface in oilcans and then sifted and catalogued later. 

Volunteer members from the Croydon Caving Club helped the archaeologists from Worthing.  They carried cavers' helmet lamps but these were not generally required as the light penetrating into the well's daunting depths was similar to that witnessed on a bright moonlit night.

Norman Allcorn, who lives in Findon, recalls being present at the dig — but he opted not to be lowered into the depths as this experience did not appeal.  It was during the excavations that a copper Roman coin was picked from the surface of the ploughed field close to the well by Norman.  This proved to be an “as” of Emperor Hadrian’s time.  See The Treasures of Downland.

The intrepid excavators who were  adventurous enough to undertake the descent agreed to each work for one hour at the bottom before being hauled up to the surface.  It is said that very few of them came up voluntarily when informed that their sixty minutes were up.  They all claimed that they had only been down a short time.  The digging was intermittent due to the fact that some of those helping only dug at the weekend.

The well yielded shards from the Early Iron Age and Roman periods.  The diggers discovered querns and bones including those of sheep, horses, oxen, deer, various breeds of dog and even mice.  None of the pottery items appeared to be later than the 1st century.  Carbonised grain seeds were also found dating from 2nd - 4th century A.D. and are thought to be wheat, which would have been grown to make bread all of those years ago for a family living in the Findon area.

I guess that the making of music would also have been a popular Findon pastime in Roman days, probably in all sections of society.   Such evidence in Sussex is relatively poor and relies on a copper alloy mouthpiece from a wind instrument found in the Roman Well here.

Much of the debris from the original burnt out Romano-British villa was recovered from the dig and it could be that at one time the well, after falling into disuse, was used as an extremely deep refuse tip!

When measured, the well’s ultimate immense depth was found to be 270 ft. but the bottom was a disappointment when reached.   There was not a drop of water as the water table level had dropped since its construction all those years before.  It was lined with local flints and it is assumed that these were placed at the foot to prevent any bucket dropped into the well from stirring up mud.

As the archaeological dig continued it attracted the attention of more and more bystanders and also the press before it was finally capped.   In 1969, a reporter from the B.B.C. was even brave enough to conduct an interview from the bottom of Findon's Roman Well.

I guess that although Findon is now waterless, research would reveal a graphic image of our area of long ago — when streams meandered through the sites of our now busy lanes and perhaps ponds stood in the midst of our housing estates.

Continue if you would like to read about The Romans at Chanctonbury Ring Overlooking Findon.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.