Centuries-old rare Roman relics gifted back to Monmouth school

Johnny Crawford, now project manager at the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust, returned to Monmouth School for Boys this week to gift some of his findings.

In 2012, when the Red Lion block at the school made way for the construction of the William Jones Building, Mr Crawford was able to return to his old stomping ground to see what he could find from the rubble.

The artefacts lay beneath Johnny Crawford’s feet as he sat in his History lessons in the late 1980s

And he said he was delighted and shocked to find rare artefacts lay beneath his feet as he sat in his history lessons in the late 80s.

Among his findings are the earliest known flint tools in Monmouthshire, and a lot of pottery and iron slag – which he says was less surprising given that Monmouth was a significant producer of iron during the Roman period as part of the Forest of Dean iron producing area.

Mr Crawford returned to his old school to deliver the artefacts and was greeted by headmaster Simon Dorman and Liz Gregory.

Archaeologist, Johnny Crawford, returned to his former school with artefacts from the 2012 excavation work at Monmouth School for Boys

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“It was an intensive programme of work that we did in 2012 and the majority of finds relate to the Roman occupation of Monmouth and the later medieval occupation,” explained Mr Crawford.

“The Roman finds were contained within a number of ditches and pits. We recovered the oldest known flint tools from Monmouth and indeed some of the earliest known from the county itself (Early Mesolithic, no later than 7,900 BC) as well as Roman brooches, coins, and pottery.

Archaeologist, Johnny Crawford, explains one of the finds to Headmaster, Mr Simon Dorman, and senior deputy head academic, Mrs Liz Gregory

“One of the Samian pottery pieces has an ownership graffito on it which is believed to be scratched by a woman. This was a particularly nice thing to find and quite unusual for Monmouth.”

The Old Monmothian added: “In terms of the medieval period, we found a lot of pottery which probably contained food that had been consumed by the workers who were producing iron in the area.

“This medieval pottery contains part of an exceptionally fine jug that dates to the later part of the 13th Century or early 14th Century and represents almost the height of the potters art at this time.

“We didn’t find any buildings, but we found drinking vessels, a lot of animal bones and possible signs of leather working and bone artefacts.

The artefacts lay beneath Johnny Crawford’s feet as he sat in his History lessons in the late 1980s

“Having been a pupil at Monmouth, it was an exciting prospect to carry out archaeological work in the footprint of the building in which I studied A level History.

“Little did I realise, as I sat in my History lessons in the old Red Lion block in the late 1980s, that one day I would be excavating and then reporting on all the amazing things that lay under my feet.

“It’s important to bring artefacts to life so that future generations of pupils at Monmouth can understand about the history of the site and the history of the place where they received their education.”