North of Lewes in East Sussex, the Upper Ouse Valley is home to an archaeological landscape rich with Roman remains, including evidence of industrial and agricultural activity, field systems, roads, and a winged corridor villa with a free-standing bathhouse. It was in order to investigate the wider historical environment around this last site (which was excavated by UCL and the Mid Sussex Field Archaeological Team in 2000-2007) that Rob Wallace founded the Culver Archaeological Project in 2005. Since then, under Rob’s direction and the supervision of qualified archaeologists, this volunteer community venture has been exploring the parishes of Barcombe and Ringmer, offering illuminating insights into the area’s Roman past. The support of the landowners, the Stroude family, has been vital for the project’s success: CAP simply could not exist without the kind permission of Harold (now deceased), Meg, and Mark to investigate on their farms, and we cannot give enough credit and appreciation for their inside knowledge of this landscape. So, with the project celebrating its 20th birthday this year, what have been some of its key discoveries?
CAP’s story begins at Culver Farm, Barcombe, which was the focus of its first phase of work between 2005 and 2010. There, what was then only a small team carried out trial-trenching, geophysical surveys, and open-area excavation within several fields, revealing diverse Roman features – the most substantial and most significant of which was a previously unknown road running down the west bank of the River Ouse. Two sections of this route were initially investigated in neighbouring fields: one in Culver Mead (where, in 2006, the team also discovered three waterlogged timbers that were later radiocarbon dated to AD 240-430), and the other in Pond Field, to the south, where excavations ran from 2007 to 2010.
This work revealed that the road was made up of large flint nodules, with a cambered surface sloping down to ditches on each side, and the excavations uncovered evidence, too, of roadside industrial activity, indicated by pits, ditches, post-holes, and areas of burning. In Pond Field, though, the team found evidence of much earlier occupation as well: a Middle Bronze Age cremation, contained in a small, plain urn stylistically dated to c.1500-1000 BC. Three more possible cremations were identified nearby, lacking urns but represented by patches of charcoal and burned bone. Then, in 2009, the project’s focus shifted south once again, examining a continuation of the same road in Court House Field – although in this area we could see a clear kink in the route’s line, possibly deviating from its course due to the need to cross a palaeochannel. And there was still more to come: during this period, we were able to borrow both an earth-resistance meter and a magnetometer, which allowed us to trace the road even further, following it as it skirted east of the villa complex and headed south towards the Downs at Offham.
