Sitting at Taplow watching cricket on a sunny summer’s afternoon, it may be hard to believe that there was once Roman activity on the site.
This first came to light in the 1950s, when fragments of pottery were found whilst a drainage ditch was being dug. This report from the Maidenhead Advertiser dated 17 June 1955 gives details.
Two archaeological digs were carried out at the ground over the following summers, in areas of the outfield and the copse area by the public footpath (not on the square!).
The finds are now housed in the Bucks County Museum (having first been deposited in Slough Museum). These include pottery, animal bones and metalwork – but no evidence of large scale buildings were found or coins uncovered. The thought is that the area may have been used for workshops and maybe living quarters.
I went to look at the finds in July 2022. Most are small fragments – but there are lots of them, sorted into bags and stored in boxes.
There is half of a Roman cheese press:
A fragment of a samian ware pot:
and some stunning fragments of glass, which are gorgeous when held up to the light:
There is a research notebook in the collection – but, frustratingly, this does not relate to the dig that produced the finds, but to a dig in a different year.
An interesting collection and a fascinating insight into the past.
Taplow occupies an important strategic position on a hill above the River Thames. There is a Saxon burial mound in the grounds of what was the old church, next to Taplow Court, which was excavated in the nineteenth century by James Rutland, a Taplow villager and one of the early members of Taplow Cricket Club. The finds from the dig are held in the British Museum.
