What next for the Eccles Roman Villa?
3 years ago this autumn, in the Lower Medway Valley, the final season of excavations on the site of the large Roman villa at Eccles came to an end; yet the site has neither benefited from full publication, nor has it been fully explored. The Eccles Roman Villa is recognised as a site of unusual significance in the story of Roman Britain, as well as a major landmark in Kentish archaeology. However, with the passage of time, the likelihood of completing the project lessens, as do prospects for the publication of a final report.
In 1961, as one of its first projects, the Lower Medway Archaeological Research Group compiled a sites and monuments index for much of north Kent. In July 1961, during the course of follow-up aerial reconnaissance of the Medway Valley, I photographed faint crop marks revealing the presence of a large villa-like structure close to Aylesford's parish boundary with Burham. The existence of substantial buried structures of the Roman period was subsequently confirmed in August 1961 through limited trial trenching carried out by members of the Group under my direction, with invaluable guidance provided by Peter Lissier (1).
The villa lies close to the east bank of the River Medway about 4 miles north of Maidstone and 6 miles south of the City of Rochester. What we know of the site results largely from a programme of excavations initiated by the Lower Medway Archaeological Research Group in 1962, then conducted annually from 1965 until 1976 under the auspices of the Eccles Excavation Committee. Our member Dr. Alec Detsicas, for many years editor of Archaeologia Cantiana, was director of the excavations from 1962 as well as secretary and treasurer of the Eccles Excavation Committee and the driving force behind the project until his death in 1999. The excavations attracted local and national publicity and interim reports were included annually in Archaeologia Cantiana (2).
The main site consists of a large Romano-British villa, with 125 rooms and many ancillary structures. Nearby pottery and tile manufacture took place on an industrial scale during the Roman period. Despite modern quarrying and the construction, in the 1970's, of large industrial buildings, the area immediately surrounding the villa site and to the east remains largely undisturbed except by modern farming, with some evidence of continuous landscape use from the late Iron Age.
In Roman times the Medway Valley was intensively occupied. The sites of a significant number of buildings are known, although few are adequately recorded. The Eccles villa is the largest and most interesting so far examined by excavation. The date of its foundation soon after the Claudian invasion, coupled with extensive structures and complexity of building periods, suggests an establishment of considerable status. Excavations have found evidence of several early ditches underlying the villa building, some possibly military in origin, and occupation continued until late in the Roman period. There was both an Anglo Saxon cemetery and material evidence of early medieval occupation (3). Recent discoveries at the Roman site at Eccleston on the River Dee, near Chester, remind us that the place-name Eccles is significant, associated possibly with the religious re-use of late Roman structures in the early medieval period.
Following Alec's retirement from a career in education in 1986, work on a final report gathered pace, helped by several grants. To facilitate work on the comprehensive topographical and trench-by-trench stratigraphy, all the excavation records (about 6,000 entries) were transferred to a database over a period of two years. In May 1999, recognising his failing health, Alec transferred responsibility for the Archive and completion of the excavation report to the Kent County Archaeologist, John Williams, with the request that the Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT) should undertake the remaining work when funds were available. The finds are presently held by the Trust and have been studied for several seasons and worked latterly with Alec towards the final report, has care of the written archive and all field records. The finds will ultimately be deposited in Maidstone Museum in accordance with an understanding agreement with Alec, the landowners and David Kelly, the Museum's then Keeper of Archaeology. It was also agreed that, until further decisions are made, all other site records remain in Rachell Shingler's care. Apart from dealing with research queries, work on the Eccles project came to a standstill about three years ago.
The current position of the Eccles project is most unsatisfactory, both for Kentish Archaeology and for Roman studies in general. The excavations were sponsored by the independent Eccles Excavation Committee, which no longer exists. The Kent Archaeological Society provided substantial financial support for the post-excavation work, but it cannot be expected to fund the far greater sums needed to complete the report. The passage of time will make it increasingly difficult for anyone to continue Alec's work of interpreting the site, or to complete the analysis of the material resulting from the patient work of countless summers. Co-ordination of work on the special finds is also in abeyance. More fieldwork might be necessary to support conclusions. If so, it must surely form part of a wider research plan to finish the work in accordance with Alec's wishes will cost a great deal more than was ever raised in his lifetime, despite the completion of the greater part of the project. We can no longer rely on the dedication of the unpaid few to take responsibility for nationally important work, nor should we entertain the possibility.
Unless action is taken soon the Eccles villa site, important though it is, will remain as a footnote to studies of the Roman period in Britain. Are we prepared to let this happen?
Footnotes
- Arch. Cant. Vol. lxxvi (1961) p. lxxii
- Interim reports appeared annually in Arch. Cant. from vol. lxxviii (1963) to vol. xcii (1977)
- Arch. Cant., vol. cxiv (1994), 165-188