Surrey Archaeological Collections
Surrey Archaeological Society, 2003. (updated 2023) https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221. How to cite using this DOI
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- ADS Collection: 379
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221
- How to cite using this DOI
SURREY ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS
Excavations on a possible Roman villa and earlier activity at land off Wyphurst Road, Cranleigh
GRAHAM HAYMAN
The site, lying on former farmland, was investigated by trial trenching on three occasions in 2002, and by area excavation, in advance of housing development, in 2004-5. Struck flints provide slight evidence of Mesolithic or Neolithic activity, and an isolated later Bronze Age barrel urn, probably a funerary deposit, is of interest. The main occupation began in the immediate pre-conquest period, and the earliest features are ring or penannular ditches, probably associated with buildings, which go out of use in the mid-late 1st century AD. Later structures were more substantial, with rectilinear stone foundations identified in the trial trenches. These were interpreted as probably part of a villa complex, and what seemed to be the core of it was excluded from the development area. The excavation areas were, therefore, towards the edge of the main settlement area, and revealed primarily ditches belonging to enclosures or paddocks, as well as some pits, waterholes or wells, and postholes of uncertain purpose. This activity began in the mid-late 1st century AD, and ceased in the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD. The first villa-like buildings at nearby Rapsley were not seen until cAD 200-20, and the possibility is considered that it then replaced the site at Wyphurst as the chief centre in this area.
