In 2012 David Williams reported in Bulletin 431 on a Late Iron Age and Early Roman site at Charlwood where a group of coins and other objects had been found by members of the Weald and Downland metal detector club. A magnetometry survey in May 2011 confirmed the possibility of buried archaeological features. The coins and associated objects were declared Treasure in 2012 and subsequently acquired by the Society. In November 2013 further magnetometry took place, after which plans were made to evaluate the results of these surveys.
In late October 2014, members of the Prehistoric Group opened two trenches. Trench 1 targeted a large magnetic anomaly which proved to be devoid of features. The anomaly was probably due to a large iron file found in the centre of the ploughsoil. This trench did however determine that the depth of the ploughsoil was approximately 25cm.
Further work at this site is now being planned starting with more magnetometry to try to determine the extent of the archaeological features.
My thanks are due to Nicola Bamforth, David Calow, Judie English, John Jennings, David Lea, Jenny Newell, Martin Rose, Mairi Sargent, Ken Waters, David Williams and Keith Winser for their assistance and advice on this project.