Roman remains on show

Archaeology enthusiasts on Sunday had their first chance to see the Roman remains unearthed at the former Minster School site on Church Street, Southwell.

A total of 36 members of Southwell Community Arch-aeology Group inspected the findings — the most significant of which is a fully preserved 4ft Roman wall.

An extensive spread of material, believed to have been a form of Roman waterproof concrete, has also been discovered.

The senior archaeological officer with Nottinghamshire County Council, Mrs Ursilla Spence, said even though parts of the site were still covered by water, it was possible to see how massive the wall was.

The group was also shown a skeleton that had been found, although it was not very visible because of the water.

“There was a lot of interesting discussion back and forth,” Mrs Spence said.

“Everyone seemed to be interested and appreciative.”

She said following a visit by English Heritage on Friday they were still no closer to discovering what it was they had unearthed.

“What we are pretty certain of is that there is more than one phase of Roman activity on that site,” she said.

Mrs Spencer said it may not have started as a villa but became one later.

“English Heritage confirmed what we as archaeologists from the region have confirmed, that the wall does not go with the villa,” she said.

Mrs Spence said what they had found was out of the ordinary.

“It may mean people have to start thinking again about the place of Southwell in Roman Britain. It’s that important,” she said.

Mrs Spence said they were now looking at following specific lines of questioning and would be carrying out key-hole investigations.

She said they expected to be finished on site by Christmas and wanted to make sure none of the remains were exposed to frost.

However, because of the damage caused by development after Roman times, she said some parts of the story of the site had been lost forever and they were unlikely to fully know what it was.

A member of Southwell Community Archaeology Group, Mrs Kate Sartain, said in many ways the open morning posed more questions than it answered.

Mrs Sartain said members who were fully qualified archaeologists felt more could be revealed.

“We feel as a community —and not just for Southwell, this is for the county of Nottinghamshire — that this is something that could be special,” she said.

“We have found out this investigation has thrown up a tremendous wall, but we need to know the rest.”

Southwell Community Archaeology Group are launching a website and plan to publish regular reports from Mrs Spence about developments.

The site will be www.south wellarchaeology.org.co.uk

The group will be discussing the site further at their meeting tomorrow, at the Old Court House, Southwell, at 10am.