Fishbourne Roman Palace

We’d finished up at Withy Mills, and were ready to drive to our next accommodation in Portslade. Kicking-out time at AirBnBs is usually 10:00, and check-in for our next one was at 17:00, so we needed to find something to entertain us en route. We decided on Fishbourne Roman Palace, near Chichester.

We got the car loaded up and set off. About halfway Sattie decided to throw a wobbly and refused to reconnect when coming out of a dark spot, so we stopped at a pub to see if we could take a break. Unfortunately, the pub wasn’t open, so we simply restarted Sattie and carried on until we reached the Roman Palace. It was around lunch-time by then so we decided to have lunch first, and then go around the museum and ruins.

 It's believed that the palace belonged to the king of the local tribe, Togidubnus, although there’s no actual evidence of this. He was pro-Roman and had been set up by the Romans as a local governor. The first wooden buildings were around 43AD, but these were later demolished in 60AD to build a bigger, stone palace, which was gradually added to over the years. The whole thing burned to the ground about 270AD – it’s not clear whether this was accidental or deliberate. The stones were taken away to be used in other buildings and the land was used as a burial ground for a while, then returned to agricultural use and the palace forgotten about. It was rediscovered in the early 19^th century, as various bits and pieces were unearthed, but the full extent of the palace wasn’t known until a proper excavation was undertaken in 1960, after workmen digging a trench for a water pipe found some mosaic tiles. The work was halted and a full archaeological dig undertaken, and whilst nearly all of the walls were gone, the mosaic floors of various rooms in the East Wing were recovered and form the basis of the exhibition here. This place was large! It’s the biggest Roman palace to have been discovered north of the Alps, and was similar in size to some of the Roman Emperors’ palaces. This supports the theory that it was built for the local chieftain, and subsequently used by the Roman governors, not just a rich tradesman. 

Detail of a mosaic

There was also a museum with artefacts in it, and a short video that illustrated what it would have looked like in its entirety. The central courtyard is divided ito two parts, and one side of this has been restored, as far as possible, to how it might have been in Roman times. The other half of the garden, and the West wing, are underneath houses and the A27.

We finished up with a cup of tea in the café, then headed to Portslade, with a quick detour to Waitrose along the way to revictual. Traffic was bad as we approached – I guess this is the typical South Coast rush hour, as it was approaching 5 o’clock. We found the location and unloaded and settled in, met our host, who gave us a lot of information about local facilities; and started planning for the next day’s adventure!