In 1924, Samuel Winbolt, a Classics teacher, spent the Summer supervising the excavation of an extensive Roman Villa site on the East Cliff, Folkestone which he had discovered the previous year. The Villa had remained open to view until about 1957 when it had been backfilled in order to protect the remains.
In 2024, the Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT), which had been involved in a number of previous digs on the site in recent years, reopened a section of the Roman Villa and also an earlier Iron Age community and work site which had been identified close by. Both sites have and will be affected by ongoing coastal erosion.
On Wednesday, 14th August 2024, HLHG member, David Paton who was assisting the work on the site, arranged for some 13 HLHG members to visit the sites which were described by the CAT site archaeologists. The Villa’s history, construction, use and demise and also that of the community of Iron Age roundhouses and workplaces, which had produced quality quern stones from the local sandstone, were explained and a number of finds were displayed.
Read the full writeup of the visit in the attached pdf below:
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