Farley Heath, in the Surrey hills near Albury, was a Romano-British rural sanctuary comprising a square Romano-Celtic temple (cella within an ambulatory) set inside a substantial walled temenos. It was active from the later 1st century AD through to the late 4th century, when it appears to have been deliberately demolished, and it served as a cult focus for the surrounding rural population of the Wealden fringe.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As one of a group of upland Surrey/Sussex sanctuaries (alongside Wanborough, Titsey and Chanctonbury Ring), Farley Heath illustrates the persistence of native Celtic religion under Roman influence in a non-urbanised landscape, well away from major roads and towns. The site is particularly notable for the very large coin assemblage recovered, indicating regular votive deposition over three centuries.
First investigated by Martin Tupper in 1848 (whose work was destructive and poorly recorded) and re-examined by Goodchild in 1939 and by Surrey Archaeological Society in the 1990s, the site has produced thousands of Roman coins, brooches, and ritual metalwork. The most famous find is a decorated bronze sceptre-binding (priestly regalia) bearing repoussé figures interpreted as deities including a Celtic Jupiter/sky-god and possibly a smith-god, now in the British Museum.
Farley Heath, in the Surrey hills near Albury, was a Romano-British rural sanctuary comprising a square Romano-Celtic temple (cella within an ambulatory) set inside a substantial walled temenos. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a sanctuary site from the Roman period in Britain.
Farley Heath is classified as a Roman sanctuary — a religious site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Ewhurst (5.9 km), Romano-British villa 120m east of Abinger Hall Stables (6 km), Roman villa N of Limnerslease, Down Lane (9.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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