Titsey Villa

Pottery, Temple Or Shrine and Villa

A square temple in a temenos beside the London-Lewes road. The outer wall of the temple had been robbed-out, but its line was marked by a vertical edging of clay. The portico measures about 42 feet by 43 feet, the cella 20¼ feet by 21¼ feet; the inner walls (i.e. of the cella) were 3½ feet thick. Built around the turn of the 2nd century and abandoned by the 3rd, the temple faced east. (Type Ia-c)

This rural temple (TQ4254) probably marked the tribal boundary between the Cantiaci to the east, the Regnenses to the south, and possibly also the Catuvellauni to the North. A Romano-British villa lay a little to the south, at Titsey (TQ4054), and in addition there are pottery kilns on Watt’s Hill (TQ4152) and at others at Moorhouse Sandpit (TQ4253).

The main Roman road to the south went through the Iron Mining districts in the Weald of Sussex possibly all the way to the coast at Pevensey Bay. The road crossed an ancient “ridge-trackway” called the Pilgrims Way just to the north of the Titsey site.

References for Titsey

  • Temples in Roman Britain by M.J.T. Lewis (Cambridge 1966).

Roman Roads near Titsey

Pilgrims Way: E (22) to Eccles (Kent) Pilgrims Way: W (26) to Gvildford (Surrey) S (11) to Holtye (Sussex) NNE (17) to Londinivm

Sites near Titsey Villa