STRICT EMBARGO PRESS RELEASE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION IN KEYNSHAM CEMETERY
In 1877 the first vestiges of a large Roman building was identified during the construction of the
mortuary chapels in the newly planned Durley Hill cemetery at Keynsham. As internments
progressed, further substantial remains were located. Eventually, during the early 1920’s, as
more remains and mosaic floors were being cut through by graves, Keynsham Parish Council
permitted two antiquaries, Arthur Bulleid and Ethelbert Horne, members of the Society of
Antiquaries of London, to investigate and record what they could between 1922 and 1924.
Bullied and Horn published their discoveries in 1926.
What they revealed proved to be one of the most spectacular Roman buildings to have been
discovered in Britain. The building is ranged around the largest court of any rural Roman
building in the country and was embellished with exotically designed rooms at either end of its
main west wing, still to this day unmatched by any other known Romano-British site. Mosaic
panels recovered from the elaborate south-west corner has recently gone on permanent public
display in the new Keynsham Civic Center.
Since 1926 the Roman building has been identified by archaeologists as one of the finest
country villas ever found in Britain, but this interpretation is being challenged by the Director of
‘The Association for Roman Archaeology’, who with the assistance of the Archaeological
Officer for Bath and North East Somerset Council, has initiated a re-examination of the site with
the Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society.
In 1998, before the development of an extension to the Keynsham cemetery, an archaeological
evaluation of the site was undertaken by The Avon Archaeology Unit, who identified a small
part of a previously unknown but substantial structure. This discovery, along with other minor
archaeological features, led to that area of the new cemetery being set aside from future burials.
It is within this conservation zone that a provisional excavation is currently taking place under
the direction of The Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society. Its field officers have over the
past two years been conducting geophysical surveys in areas of the old Victorian burial ground
as well as the new cemetery extension. Members of both the Bath and Camerton Society and
the Association for Roman Archaeology are participating in the current excavation, which
consists of a broad trench across part of a Roman building identified in the recent geophysical
surveys. The Association’s Director, Bryn Walters, is optimistic that the newly located remains
will be prove to be a detached temple fronting the great villa building beneath the Victorian
cemetery. If this proves to be the case it will support his theory that the building seen in
the1920’s is not a grand villa, but a religious healing sanctuary, possibly connected to the
recently identified Roman town of Trajectus, adjacent to the now abandoned Cadbury/Fry’s
chocolate factory. The excavation will be open to visitors on Saturday the 25th July.
Please note that there is no car parking allowed at the cemetery itself. Prospective visitors
should find a parking space in the north west edge of Keynsham and walk up the hill to the
cemetery entrance which is about 400 yards up Durley Hill from the Rugby/Football Ground ,
on the right hand side of the Bath-Bristol Road (A 4175)
Initial Contact: Bryn Walters, Director, ‘The Association for Roman Archaeology’
TEL: 01793 534 008