Roman Remains

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• The location of the Roman camp
• Roman finds
• The Burial Cists
• The Chieftain and his Horse
• The Gold Coin from the time of Emperor Nero

Report on the 'Recent Excavations at Kempsey' by King's School boys in the Summer term of 1954.

Location
The site at Kempsey, about four miles out of Worcester, is in a field lying between the Severn and a small hook in its left bank. The camp is beyond all doubt a genuine antiquity of the Roman occupation as there is ample evidence to certify the date.

The Site
The rampart which guarded the neck from the northwest was in good preservation until recently when cultivation destroyed its form. Now, only the central part remains to a height of between six feet and eight feet, but the position of the remainder may be easily traced. The other sides of the promentary were apparently well enough defended by scarps rising from the marshy ground.

The vallum of the camp may be easily detected, but unfortunately a good deal has been concealed by levelling. The west vallum, on which the excavations were carried out, lay on the ridge of ground skirting the flat on the east side of the Severn. Its northernmost point commenced at the back of the garden belonging to the parsonage house, and ran in a line from thence to within about fifty yards of the south west corner of the churchyard, where it bowed round.

The Excavation
A trench fifty-six feet long and three feet wide was dug so that a cross section of the west vallum could be obtained. It was found that the foundations were made of compact pebbles and clay and its construction was unique - Mr. Webster, curator of Chester museum, in charge of operations, does not know how it was executed. This becomes more baffling as the edge is perfectly vertical with no apparent support. Mr. Webster's first reflections on the matter are that there must have been a firm earth bank built first, and then the foundations laid against it. Is is a feasible theory, as a ditch, common to fortifications of this period, was not detected within the bounds of the excavated trench, showing that it did not come immediately outside the fort wall.

From the site, pottery, coins, and part of a Roman flue were unearthed. A large flagstone bearing a Latin inscription to the honour of Constantine the Great was dug up within the bounds of the stronghold.

The Roman Burial Ground
A Roman burial ground lies to the north-east of the fort and revealed some extremely fine relics. Several fragments of sepulchral urns, cups and pans of various shapes and sizes, evidently belonging to the time of the Romans and Romanised Britons, were dug out of a gravel bed. Some of these vessels were made of a coarse dark clay and others of a common red brick clay. They were discovered about three and a half feet beneath the surface and were enveloped in black ash within a cavity or cist, about six feet in circumference, over which a roof of broken pebbles and clay had been originally formed but it had fallen into the cist, (about six feet in circumference) and most probably broke the vessels. There were also a few fragments of bone in the same cist, all of which probably belonged to a horse, as several teeth of that animal were found. A copper brooch, used by the man to fasten the tunic and cloak to the left shoulder and by the woman the vestment in front of the breast, was likewise in the same cavity.

The relics of a horse found in one of the cists afford strong evidence that the ashes of a Romanised British chieftain were deposited there - for such costly funeral sacrifices, although very common among our rude ancestors, were much restricted by Roman law.

About a dozen other cists were found during the same series of excavations. They contained ashes, broken pebbles and various articles of broken pottery. The large cist contained black ashes and a large pan full of ornaments. The various fragments of pottery still retain their handles and the larger portions are beautifully decorated. The majority of these tombs contained the remains of animals, the favourite being the horse. The date of these burial grounds has been fixed by the various coins found there: one of the most recent finds was a gold piece bearing the figure of the Emperor Nero.

In itself the site is an extremely remarkable one as it not only contains the fort and burial ground, but also the villa. It is a great pity that there are buildings in this portion of the site otherwise it would have been an exceptional example of the Roman period. Nevertheless many things have been preserved after having been dug out of the flower beds during Sunday afternoons digging by the inhabitants, and the ground still offers wide scope for the future arch�olgist.

If you are interested in Dark Age burials of warriors with their horses, you might be interested in the BBC TV series 'Meet the Ancestors' program on one found in Suffolk. There is a book of the series, reference: Julian Richards 1999 Meet the Ancestors, BBC Books; ISBN: 0563384581 Hardcover - 224 pages

© 1999 - Andy Morrall

Last updated 14^th August 2005.

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