New excavations to shed new light on Caistor Roman Town

The community-led Caistor Roman Project sees a combination of volunteers and experts excavating trenches at Caistor St Edmund, which was known as Venta Icenorum in Roman times.

There have been regular excavations, but in the past couple of years attention has moved away from the walled area most people think of as the Venta Icenorum site.

After last year's successful dig in the grounds of Caistor Hall Hotel, the project will return to that location to further investigate a trench at the eastern end of the site.

Remains of a flagon found at Caistor St Edmund (Image: Dan Grimmer)

The previous discovery of large quantities of late Iron Age pottery and the excavation of a temple on the edge of modern-day Caistor St Edmund has reinforced the notion the town grew from an earlier settlement focused on a cult site.

Organisers also hope the new excavations, which start on Monday and continue until Saturday, August 31, will also yield more evidence to back up the idea Caistor St Edmund remained an important town well after the Roman period.

They also hope the dig will provide insight as to why the Roman town was eventually superseded by Norwich.

A part of a glass dolphin handle found at the Caistor St Edmund excavations in 2023 (Image: Dan Grimmer)

Professor Will Bowden, from the University of Nottingham, said: "The 2023 excavations suggested that the origins of Venta Icenorum really lie beneath the grounds of the Caistor Hall Hotel, so it is wonderful to be able to explore this further in 2024."

Mike Pinner, chair and research co-ordinator for the Caistor Roman Project, said: "This year’s work is a further development of the research that we’ve been carrying out in the area beyond the walls of the Roman town for some time which demonstrates that the area of habitation was much larger than previously imagined."

Remains of walls at Caistor Roman Town (Image: Archant)

Venta Icenorum first triggered interest more than 90 years ago after the RAF took a series of aerial photographs during a hot summer.

Aerial photographs taken in 1928 revealed the layout of the Roman town (Image: Newsquest Archive)

Those 1928 photographs of the parched field, published in the Times, revealed the Roman town's layout of streets and buildings and prompted excavations in the following decade.

Free guided tours of the latest dig will be available at 9.30am and 11.30am on Saturday, August 24 and at 9.30am, 11.30am and 2pm on Saturday, August 31.

People must sign up at Eventbrite.com and numbers are limited.