Hockwold Temple (Sawbench Wood)

Temple Or Shrine

In 1962, the remains of a Roman temple were discovered in Sawbench Wood. Excavations that year uncovered a complex featuring narrow ditches and timber-framed buildings with chalk floors. Among the finds were Roman coins, decorative mounts, fragments of priests’ head-dresses, a votive letter, and urned cremations, which were buried beneath a deposit of red deer antlers.

It is a small, square temple which lies on the edge of the Fens. The portico wall was about 26 feet square, the inner cella measured about 10 by 9 feet and was defined by the brick bases of four posts, the charred remains of one such roof-support, measuring 9 feet in length, was found on the floor. The temple probably faced east. Originally built in the 2nd century, a new floor was added in the late-3rd. This temple was burned to the ground and another new floor was laid in the mid-4th century, but the temple had fallen into disuse by the late-4th. (Type Ie, or IIe)

In the 1960s, a large Roman rural settlement near Grange Farm was excavated ahead of the construction of the cut-off channel from Denver to Hockwold. The excavation yielded a significant collection of Roman building materials, coins, pottery, and metal artifacts. Between the two main settlement areas, evidence of individual Roman buildings has been identified, along with cropmarks and earthworks indicating field systems and enclosures.