THE foremost expert on Roman Winchester Prof Martin Biddle has called for full archaeological excavations in part of the Silver Hill area. The city council is currently not planning such work, saying initial work has not revealed anything “exciting.”

Prof Biddle writes: Was there a Roman amphitheatre in Winchester? Almost certainly ‘yes’ but we don’t know where it was. In the Winchester Excavation Committee’s 1,000-page, two-volume book on Roman Winchester, we record over 120 sites inside the ancient walls where Roman remains have been found, but there’s not a trace of the curved walls which would be the sign of a Roman amphitheatre.

Could it lie in within the Central Winchester Regeneration Area? We don’t know, although we do know that this area comprising the valley floor was fully utilised in the Roman period when the water level was much lower than today.

The area is divided north to south by Tanner Street. The area west of Tanner Street we know quite well as a result of both WEC (1962-71) and WMS excavations. While there may not be much more to learn about this area, it remains vital that any new buildings should be designed to cause the least possible disturbance of the archaeology and that all unavoidable impacts (e.g lift shafts, service trenches) should be archaeologically excavated as a planning condition.

The area east of Tanner Street is a very different matter as I believe there has been very little or no archaeological excavation of this area. We have some outline knowledge of the situation from sparse documentary evidence from the late 13th century onwards. The medieval occupation of this area seems to have been limited, and there has been relatively little medieval disturbance of the whole area up to the city walls. There is some disturbance to the south in the back areas of buildings on the north side of the Broadway, and some along the various smaller lanes to the east but, in general, very little dense medieval activity, which means relatively little digging of medieval pits, wells, and other disturbances of the underlying Roman deposits.

Because there has been little large-scale building in that area in medieval, and in modern, times the Roman remains that will certainly be there – houses, tessellated pavements, and even Roman public buildings – will be exceptionally well preserved. The regeneration area will therefore be of special importance for the archaeology of Roman Winchester.

Remote sensing and bore holes can provide some information about subterranean conditions, but the detail they deliver on archaeological remains is deficient and imperfect. The only hope of getting a clear view of the archaeology within the site is by digging, and I suggest that five or six large open areas each of, say, at least 10 metres by 20 metres, should be excavated, widely distributed over the area as a whole. These should give us some real knowledge of what to expect and how the development of the area can be managed by the Council, to preserve the archaeology as well as might be possible.

The city has waited some years for the council to progress works within the Central Winchester Regeneration Area, but the opportunity to investigate an area with so much archaeological potential is truly unique. And how wonderful and invigorating for the city would it be if we did find the amphitheatre, or other buildings of significance? The advancement of our knowledge and the tourist potential of putting artifacts and structures on public display would be considerable but, however the site is later developed, the most important thing is that we first accurately establish what riches might lie beneath.

Professor Martin Biddle, CBE, FBA, director of the Winchester Research Unit

Other Silver Hill News: Hampshire Chronicle comment

Empty office block brought back into use

Key decision on how to develop Silver Hill aka Central Winchester Regeneration