In another delightful guest article, Richard Stilgoe recounts his unexpected journey into Roman history while undertaking a personal project to dig a lake at Trevereux Manor.

What began as a modern landscaping venture soon uncovered remnants of ancient Roman life, including a paved staging area believed to be used for changing horses—described humorously as the Roman equivalent of Clacket Lane Services.

With help from archaeologists and later a pair of enthusiastic detectorists, Dom and Matt, Stilgoe’s field yielded a surprising haul of Roman artefacts, from coins to a striking Hermes figurine.

Blending wit with historical insight, he brings to life the enduring legacy of Rome in the fields of Trevereux—and the very human stories buried beneath our feet…

The Roman Invasion of Crockham Hill & Limpsfield Chart

I am one of those people who is hard to live with unless they have a PROJECT, and in 1994 the project was digging a lake at Trevereux Manor, then in 2000 it was making that lake bigger.  

On both occasions I was only allowed to do this if I was watched by the Surrey County archaeologists, because the lake was going to be above the route of the Roman Road.   

This is the London to Lewes Way, not the Vanguard Way, which admittedly sounds as though it was the route the first Romans took when they arrived in 43 A.D.  There is a band of keen ramblers called the Vanguard Way Association, but they called themselves that because on their first walk they missed the last passenger train and got a lift home in the Guard’s Van, so called themselves after it.  (Honestly – that’s the story!). The not-the-Vanguard-way follows Edenbridge High Street, then the bit of Dairy Lane by Hurst Farm, then goes across my field and through my garden up to the Chart.  

While I was happily digging the lake on my digger I was watched by two metres of hippy and a serious young woman called Jane who stopped me every now and then, picked up a piece of pottery, said “Bronze Age” and put it in a plastic bag.  

I carried on digging; and what we eventually found was not a road five metres wide, but a paved area twenty metres square.  Because we are at the bottom of Trevereux Hill, the Romans needed a place to take on more horses (or probably more slaves – let’s not romanticise this) for the climb.  We had found the Roman equivalent of Clacket Lane Services.  Centurions would stop there for a skinful of wine and a Maximus (that’s a Big Mac in Latin).  Because of the steepness of the hill, some historians think they eventually gave up this route altogether, and took the slightly gentler slope to the east, through Limpsfield Chart and Crockham Hill village. Experts argue about this, because that’s what experts enjoy.

Anyway, we collected all the bits of broken pottery, smoothed over the clay, built the lake and forgot all about it.

Then Dom and Matt turned up.   Dom and Matt are detectorists, and as serious about what they do as the two in the charming TV series.  They asked if they could search the field, and I showed them the route of the Roman road, and off they went, and soon there were excited noises.  “I’ve been doing this twenty years Richard and in that time I’ve found five Roman coins,” said Dom. “Then I’ve got four just this afternoon!”  They were thrilled.  And more goodies turned up.  

Three finds above:

1. A little metal torso, about 50mm high, found in February 2023.
2. Emperor Constantius II from about 370 AD, in pretty good shape, apart from people clipping bits of silver round his edges.  So the Romans were still using the road in 370 AD, forty years before they left for good.
3. Best of all, on 25^th September, I got an excited phone call from Dom and Matt, and I scampered across the field to see what they had found.  They had found Hermes.   He’s about 13cm tall, and from the first or second century AD. He was a popular good luck charm for Roman travellers, and nearly two thousand years ago he fell out of the folds of the toga of a Roman, who had just left the Via Clacket, full of wine and a ‘Maximus’ and was going to have to explain to his wife back home what had happened to the figurine she had given him to keep him safe.  

“What have the Romans ever done for us?” cries John Cleese in the Life of Brian.  “Sanitation.  The aqueduct.  Roads!” the crowd reply.  The Romans gave Limpsfield Chart and Crockham Hill their very own Roman Road.  And thanks to Dom and Matt, they gave us a little statuette that gives us a glimpse of a real person on his way home to Rome with a hole in his pocket.   

Richard Stilgoe