Monument record EYE 024 - Camp Field

Remains of hypocaust, possibly of villa (or ?Med tile kiln). Two arched chambers of vaults excavated by Mr Fenning (Mr Penning in S3), the landowner, in Camp Field in 1857. Found on W side of field overlooking low meadows, to the NW of the castle, 1 foot 9 inches below ground surface. The floor constructed of a kind of hard, compact cement, and the fill was earth and ash. Tiles of building given as half inch thick. Marked on 6 inch OS map, 1925 revised 1938, sheet XXXVI NE as "Roman Villa (site of)" (S1)(S2)(S3)(S5).
In 1935, Basil Brown gained permission of owner, Mr Day, to investigate the site. He dug trial holes, which did not produce a single piece of Rom pottery or tiles, so he was not able to confirm site (S4).
"Haverfield mentions having seen drawing of hypocaust at Eye in Campfield (1857)" (S5)(R1).
Note field/s not recorded as Camp Field on Tithe map (1839), however a `Camp Piece' existed to N at TM 149 752.

Another account in "Peeps at eye in the Olden Times" by Rev G F Maclear, 1862, 9-10 says: 'A few years back, in a meadow called Camping Colse, near Bedingfields Almhouses, some labourers came upon arches, which on examination were pronounced to have belonged ..to an old Roman bath'