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

    THE ROMANS AT CHANCTONBURY RING OVERLOOKING FINDON

Copyright Valerie Martin 2002

In 1760 Charles Goring planted sapling beech trees at Chanctonbury overlooking Findon and as these grew they disturbed the ruins of Romano-British buildings buried on the site.  

Excavation at Chanctonbury in 1908 revealed a sunken temple with a court dating c. 54 A.D.  The proof lay in the hundreds of tiny coloured pavement stones, or tesserae, excavated.  A tile also came to light where a Roman dog on the edge of the Roman Empire had imprinted its pad before it was fired.  One can imagine the cursing as the wretched hound was shooed away.

The many Roman coins discovered on and around the location proved that the temple was functional for some three hundred years.  

A labourer by the name of John Butcher, who died in his eighties in 1967, spent his working life on the Goring Estate.  He had many stories to relate on the subject of Roman coins dug up in the area of Chanctonbury.  He was the grandson of “Mas” Butcher of Locks Farm below the Ring.  His grandfather had often recounted the story of how during a hard day’s work for Mr. Goring, he had discovered coins when planting the outside ring of trees on the summit. 

John Butcher also remembered another workman, around the year 1910, who had discovered by chance a hoard of coins.  He had been toiling on the breezy heights and carting flints from a location just below one of the dew ponds, when to his amazement he unearthed the coins.  Being an astute character, he pocketed the treasure-trove.  He later bragged to his incredulous fellow workers how he had received the princely sum in those days of fourteen pounds for just one of the coins. 

Roman coinage recovered over the years dated from Nero (AD 54-68) to Gratian (AD 375-383).

Continue if you would like to read about the Roman Invasion of the Downland.

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