Embedded Files
The land at the foot of the South Downs is rich in Roman relics.
The invaders from Rome saw the hinterland from their landing site at Pevensey as an important source of iron - after all, we know the pre-Roman period as the Iron Age. The low weald offered both iron ore, and plenty of wood to smelt it, in primitive kilns known as 'bloomeries'. The British tribe in the south, the Atrebates, had been supplying iron to the Romans across the Channel - the Romans eventually decided to take control themselves.
Excavations at Arlington in 2006-8 suggest a small Roman town grew up close to a crossing of the Cuckmere, with kilns, other industrial buildings, and a cemetery, probably around the 1st Century A.D. It went into decline with the building of a fort at Pevensey - Anderitum - which took over as the area's administrative centre. The archaeologists at Arlington found evidence of a Roman road, believed to have linked Pevensey through to another Roman settlement in Hassocks. To the west of Arlington, there's another Roman road, believed to have run from the north right over the Downs to modern Newhaven, where a Roman industrial building has been found. Villas have been discovered at Beddingham, Eastbourne and Barcombe.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse