A Fragment of a Romano-British Wooden Wheel (100 to 300 Romano-British )

wood

Provenance: Found by Ralph Carte in Sussex, thence by descent

An interesting note accompanies this piece which reads: ‘You may recall selling a little brass box of Roman pottery, which my Mother and Aunt as children in the 1920’s, liberated from an archaeological dig near their home in Sussex (near Pulborough) when the archaeologists had left the site at the end of the day. Local people seemed to do this without much of a fuss being made. The same applies to the piece of chariot wheel, which was liberated from a dig site by my Grandfather, Ralph Carte. Formerly the District Engineer in Batticaloa, Ceylon, he retired to Hardham in Sussex, and was an energetic amateur historian and genealogist, travelling by train and bicycle around the south of England, drawing and calculating (and thereby recreating on paper) ancient ruined buildings, liberating curiosities from historic sites, (encouraging his daughters to do likewise), searching endless church registers and studying in the British Library. His diaries are full of his travels and finds. What a grand life!.’

A Fragment of a Romano-British Wooden Wheel, probably from a chariot
With old label reading: ‘Portion of an old Roman mill wheel, Hardham’
1st – 2nd Century A.D

Size: 39cm long – 15¾ ins long