We are almost getting used to fine weather for these guided archaeological walks ! For the last walk of the season we had a fine sunny day for visiting Duncton Common and Graffham, led by James Kenny and Ian Scrivener-Lindley. The National Trust owned Common has three round barrows, now deep in bracken, which would have dominated their hilltop when constructed. At Little Bury a hillock is marked on maps as a tumulus but this is almost certainly incorrect as the shape is wrong, there is no ditch, and a similar mound can be seen at Great Bury nearby in the campsite.

On the outskirts of the village of Graffham James showed us a streambed with lots of Roman tile and flue tile, pegtile, mediaeval floor tile and postmediaeval pottery from Graffham Pottery. The kiln sites were dug by Alec Down and Fred Aldsworth. A Roman villa must have stood nearby but it has not been found.

We crossed a scented pinewood and lunched in a heather-filled clearing before ascending Gallows Hill. Here is a cemetery with 3 more roundbarrows. Although all are scheduled monuments they are very neglected with trees, bracken and rhododendron attacking them. We climbed onto one barrow which seems to have been dug out but there are no records.

We passed the former railway station at Selham on the Midhurst-Petworth line, opened by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway in 1872 and closed finally in 1963, and continued to St James’s church, Selham. The face-alternated quoining, herringbone walls and non-rebated main door are all indications that it is late Anglo-Saxon. The famous carved capitals of the chancel arch, showing a “worm” devouring its own tail, a symbol of death and renewal, are among the best examples of Anglo-Saxon stonework in England. The arch incorporated a large piece of reused carved Roman stone.

After a tea-break in the sunshine by the spillway at Barnett’s Mill, little trace of which remains, we returned to Duncton Common.