The Romans in Hadleigh – A Lottery Funded Project

2017/2018 marks a development of AGES AHA, the acquisition of our first ever geophysics equipment. This would not have been possible without the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund.

This enabled 18 of our members to train at SEEVIC college in non intrusive archaeological techniques and prepare ourselves for the use of the new resistivity meter.

However, it wasn’t the prospect of geophysics which ignited our enthusiasm for the project, but questions posed to Year 3 of Hadleigh Junior Schools by visiting archaeologists from Cambridge University when showing Roman pottery found in our test pit digs at the Hadleigh United Reformed Church. Asked about what the Romans did in Hadleigh, the students answered, “They were soldiers”, “They had swords and killed people” and it was only after some helpful suggestions did they come up with the option”Were they farmers?”

It was evident that the absence of any locally specific information about the Romans had given the children a slanted idea of the ferocity of our ancestors, at least in Hadleigh.

So we set about gaining as much local knowledge as we could and to make it available to all local residents.