I was recently one of a few County Councillors who took the chance to visit the Silchester “Town Life” Project.

If you are tempted to discover what secrets can be uncovered in Hampshire, you could do a lot worse than to travel out into the beautiful countryside around Silchester, where can be found probably the best preserved Roman town in northern Europe, called “Calleva”.

A team of expert archaeologists, supplemented by hundreds of volunteers, including many students from Reading University, are carefully excavating an area inside the town walls, known as an Insula (basically a block of buildings). The excavation is open to the public, including two special open days per annum and receives between 5,000 and 6,000 visitors per season.

From a raised platform in the middle of the site, you can see the remains of the old town walls, giving a really good idea of the actual size of a Roman town. It’s something of a mystery that the town was effectively abandoned and didn’t become a settlement, such as in Winchester.

The detailed excavation work has been going on for some 14 seasons, revealing ancient roman streets, rubbish tips, wells and buildings. Items are being found on an almost daily basis, including silver coins, brooches, tools, cooking utensils (including pottery that originated in the New Forest area!). During my visit, I was able to handle items that had been dug up only hours earlier, precious items that had been buried for centuries.

The work undertaken so far has uncovered evidence that the area was once an Iron Age settlement comprising of wooden buildings that were burnt down (whether deliberately or accidentally), then replaced by a Roman street grid, to an entirely different plan.

If you fancy going to have a look for yourself, please do so. Hampshire County Council are using some of your money (as taxpayers), to help fund this important work. Even better, if you want to get directly involved as a volunteer, I’m sure they would be pleased to hear from you. Two websites you can contact for more information ; www.silchester.reading.ac.uk and www.reading.ac.uk/archaeology

Do let me know if you pay a visit or decide to help and how you get on. For feedback or to contact me about any other County Council service, e-mail me on dharrison100@aol.com or visit my web-site www.dharrison.org.uk.