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A second season of excavations at Bodiam Castle in Sussex has revealed extensive evidence of a Roman presence, with tiles and pottery confirming that the site was home to a port for the Classis Britannica – the Roman naval fleet in British waters.
The investigations were carried out by the National Trust, in partnership with Archaeology South-East and UCL, as part of the ‘Bodiam 100’ project: a three-year initiative aiming to learn more about the medieval castle and the site on which it stands in the lead-up to its centenary of being under the protection of the National Trust (which falls this year; see CA 414). While Bodiam is best-known for its moated castle – built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years War – it had been previously earmarked as possibly containing important Roman remains due to numerous pottery finds over the years, including tiles that hinted at the presence of the Classis Britannica. Until this most-recent work, however, no major excavations had been conducted to confirm this.
The project’s first phase, in the summer of 2024, revealed a 20th-century hop garden associated with the Guinness company, medieval field systems, and part of the Roman road that ran from Rochester to Hastings. The second season revealed a further stretch of this road north-west of the castle, confirming its alignment, but the most impressive finds came from the south side of the River Rother. There, several trenches revealed large dumps of Roman pottery and building material, including several fragments of tiles with partial stamps of the Classis Britannica (above), as well as imported and domestic wares, among them sherds of a rare face pot. A similar piece of a face pot had previously been found at Smallhythe, a National Trust property in Kent, where another Classis Britannica port was located (CA 410). One of the trenches also yielded part of a broken pipeclay figurine depicting the lower back and buttocks of a nude female, which has been interpreted as probably the goddess Venus. It and a selection of other Roman finds are now on display at Bodiam’s Castle Cottage Museum until at least the end of the year.
Other finds included extensive evidence of ironworking waste and glassware, speaking to Roman industrial activity on the site, while masonry remains indicated the presence of substantial structures nearby. It is believed that remains of a palaeochannel of the Rother, found near the pottery dumps, probably served as the main access point for the Classis Britannica in this area, but further post-excavation analysis of environmental remains may provide confirmation.
The final year of excavation at the site is set to commence this summer, and we will bring you a fuller feature about the ‘Bodiam 100’ project in due course. Watch this space to see what else is revealed.
Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Image: Ellis Briley
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