Why did Dr Neal re-excavate the Gadebridge Roman Villa in 2000?
It was while working on some of the other villa sites that Dr Neal realised that many of them had evidence of early occupation – rectangular and circular groups of post holes which are the remains of the supports of late Iron Age building structures. These had not been identified at Gadebridge during the 1960s excavations. In early 2000, following a meeting with Dr Neal, Mike Stanyon, Dacorum Borough Council’s Community Heritage Officer, sought permission from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to re-excavate a section of the villa site. This was a section that Dr Neal had not had the time to fully excavate during the 1960s, a section which he considered would be most likely to hold traces of early occupation. This area was originally considered to be a courtyard as it was surrounded by stone walls which had been erected on top of earlier occupation. However, within this area the remains of a hearth and stone quern or hand mill were found. In later excavations these have only b
