SDO14091 - Letter from Gp Capt G E Livcock to R N R Peers, dated 18th May 1960

‘NOTES ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE IWERNE MINSTER ROMAN VILLA. I had a long talk with Mrs Erskine of Stourpaine recently and showed here the photographs of the villa taken in 1891, discovered at Ranston in November 1959. Mrs Erskine is the daughter of the then Lady Baker of Ranston, and was a girl of thirteen or fourteen in 1891. The used to go and watch the excavations every day, and remembers the photographs being taken. Apparently the 1891 summer was exceptionally hot and dry. A gardener from Ranstone named Hoskings happened to walk over the field and noticed “brown straight lines in the grass.” As he “was interested in that sort of thing”, he told Lady Baker, who visited the site, and realised what it was. Lady Baker then had a couple of days digging on her own before being stopped by her husband who was horrified that she should commit the sacrilege of excavating on General Pitt-Rivers’ land. A letter reporting the find was sent to General Pitt-Rivers (“there were no telephones in those days of course”). He came down at once to see the site. Most of the men for the excavation came from Ranston. Mrs Erskine was very disappointed that the photographs discovered did not include one of the mosaic pavement which was in very good condition. The pavement was covered undisturbed at the end of the dig.’