Time team

A new walk with the spaniel this morning, from St Peter's Church in Offham down to the Ouse and along to St Peter's on the river island of Hamsey and then to St Mary's at Barcombe where we turned to head back along the Ouse Valley Way. Below this distinctive line of Poplars near Avery's farm lies Dunstalls field, site of the enormous Barcombe Roman villa and bath house complex. The site was excavated for many years but has since returned to agricultural use. Whenever the field gets ploughed hundreds of fragments of Roman brick, tile and pottery are brought up to the surface. This morning I collected a shard of pottery from what appears to be a jar of some kind. The inside is still glazed. Amazing to think it could be nineteen hundred years old.