If you think this information is inaccurate please e-mail corrections to Hertfordshire HER .

Summary

Possible hard standing for casting votive offerings into the river Chess, in an area of Roman domestic debris

Monument Types

• FINDSPOT (Early Roman - 50 AD to 200 AD)
• PLATFORM? (Roman - 50 AD to 409 AD)

Associated Events

• Watching brief at Frogmore Meadows, Moor Lane, Sarratt, 2009
• Geophysical survey at Frogmore Meadows, Sarratt, 2011
• Evaluation at Frogmore Meadows, Sarratt, 2011

Full description

A layer of unbonded chalk blocks observed during construction of a pond in Frogmore Meadows, on the bank of the river Chess, appeared to be of Roman date. Roman pottery came from between the blocks and from immediately beneath them; one piece was probably 2nd century. The chalk blocks might have been for consolidation of the river bank, although there was no evidence of an earlier bank which needed such treatment. Alternatively, they represent a platform from which votive offerings could be cast into the river <1>. In the spoil from the ponds was a 'considerable number of Romano-British artefacts from the topsoil', mainly pottery but also 'quernstone fragments, worked and burnt flint, metal, animal bones, glass and building material' <2>.
Geophysical survey of the meadow west of the ponds led to investigation in four small trenches. The chalk surface was found to extend to a bank of flint and pebbles, without finds but with some Roman sherds in the upper contexts of the platform. Lower levels were water-worn natural chalk. Towards the north-east corner of the meadow Roman pottery and bone fragments were unstratified and in a gravel layer; in a third trench was a compacted band of flints and pebbles running north-south, and containing worn Roman sherds. There was no sign of any structure and almost no building material. The pottery dates to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD and includes amphora sherds, Samian and other fine wares; there was also part of a granite quernstone <2>.

<1> Kaye, David, 2009, Watching brief: Frogmore Meadows, Moor Lane, Sarratt, Herts, RNO 2440 (Report). SHT7591.

<2> Wells, Marion, 2011, Frogmore meadow: the 2009 watching brief and excavations in February 2011; Chess Valley Journal 31, 33-8 (Article in serial). SHT2564.

Sources and further reading

Related records

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.