Roman building? Maybe, maybe not

Updated: Jun 16, 2020

UPDATE:

After liaising with the very nice county #finds people it turns out the site is a post-medieval mill!. circa 16/17th century.

"Site of 16th-17th century watermill and mill leat. After work by Reading University an excavation was undertaken on the mill. This revealed a cobble floor with adjacent mill leat, the latter measuring 3m wide and 1.1m deep"

Original Post

With academics being able to spot old roman villas, roads and buildings using satellite images I wanted to check out what the land looks like where I walk. The site of the known Roman Villa (https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1004860, https://nickatom.wixsite.com/mudlarking/post/roman-roof-and-mosaic-files) is covered in crops right now but very close to that I noticed the outline of building or structure.

The horizontal trench seems to run in a perfect line to the pil / stream. this trench is partially visible on the ground bu the rest is not.

Google maps is v useful in terms of measuring distances also. The main wall, or what could have been a wall is approx 33m in length.

Going to be taking a closer look on the ground at this now! If I can avoid the cows!

I could not get very close today as cows don't like beagles. Fact. But you can see from the photos below there is nothing structural in that spot today bar driftwood.

Update

Having dodged the cows I managed to stand in the middle of the markings and the cows have for sure been walking along two of the lines. Maybe it was a cattle station but for me the structure of it looks like it was a building. At least that's what I would like it to be!

I did find a large horse shoe in the intertidal section directly south of the markings (the part of the walk that looks like it is in the estuary)