The Wanborough temple site in Surrey, located near the foot of the Hog's Back, comprised a Romano-Celtic temple complex active from the late Iron Age through the 4th century AD. Excavations revealed at least two temple structures: a circular shrine and a later square Romano-Celtic temple with ambulatory, suggesting continuity of cult practice on a sacred site.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site was a significant rural religious centre serving the surrounding tribal territory, likely associated with the Atrebates or Cantiaci, and lay near the route linking Silchester (Calleva) with the south coast. Its remarkable assemblage of priestly regalia indicates it was a major regional shrine where elaborate ritual was performed.
Discovered in the 1980s and notoriously looted before formal excavation by Surrey Archaeological Society, the site yielded over 9,000 Iron Age and Roman coins, plus exceptional copper-alloy priestly headdresses, chain crowns and sceptre fittings — among the finest such ritual regalia from Roman Britain. Subsequent excavations in the 1990s confirmed the temple sequence and surrounding ceremonial enclosure.
The Wanborough temple site in Surrey, located near the foot of the Hog's Back, comprised a Romano-Celtic temple complex active from the late Iron Age through the 4th century AD. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a temple site from the Roman period in Britain.
Wanborough is classified as a Roman temple — 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 Romano-Celtic temple complex 385m west of Long Common (1.5 km), Roman villa N of Limnerslease, Down Lane (2.6 km), Worplesdon (6.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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