Site of Roman building at Church of St Mary the Virgin (EHER 4558)

A Roman dwelling house was found in 1887 whilst restoring the church.

Roman buildings on church site. <1> Roman dwelling house found 1887 in restoring the church. Nothing now visible on the surface, no plans or detailed descriptions survive. A small bit of the tessellated floor in private hands at Bishop's Stortford. <2> A small section of the tessellated floor was seen at Saffron Walden Museum, made up with common red tesserae. Found under the floor of Stansted church which "appears to stand on the site of a Roman house". The vicar knew nothing of the finds. In the churchyard the OS Field Officer saw several pieces of coarse tile of Roman appearance but no signs of Roman material built into the church, "the churchyard was full of tiles and broken pottery of New Forest and coarse wares. The site of the building is near the top of the hill, at the bottom of which on the north runs the Stansted Brook. The Roman road is about 1 and 3/4 miles away". <3> - <6> In 1891 J.J. Green reported pottery thrown up near the grave of Major-General Farrell and observed "the whole churchyard teems with Roman remains." The pottery included New Forest and ordinary red wares but no Samian. Also fragments of flue tile, tegulae and imbrices. In a later article Green reported more objects from the churchyard, including horseshoes. He also states that a plain, uneven pavement of red tesserae was found in 1887 2-3ft below the surface, within the nave of the church on the south side. Part is now in Saffron Walden Museum which also has tiles from the churchyard. <6> - <9>