In a recent article by Robin Leach, he explained the availability of brick-making clay in Kenilworth.

The first evidence of brick-making or tile-making dates from Roman times: South of Chase Woods, there are three kilns at least, and another kiln beside the old Cherry Orchard claypit. This asks the question, where was the building that used the output?

Roman villas come in many sizes, from relatively small farmsteads – dwelling house, barns, sheds and the like – more extensive ones with baths and hypocausts, like Chedworth, to almost palaces like those at Fishbourne and Bignor in Sussex.

Kenilworth’s layout, with its sheltered valley and abundant water supply, reminds us of Chedworth most of all. Is it possible that somewhere in the Abbey Fields area there are the remains of a Roman villa?

Unfortunately, a villa is not the only thing that we are missing. When the Priory of Kenilworth was made up to the Abbey of Kenilworth in 1447, the head of the community achieved a very high status and would have been expected to live in a suitably high status house. We do not know where that was, except that it would have been away from the main buildings and within the encircling Abbey wall.

It has been conjectured that it was in the area below Abbotsfield House, to the west of the churchyard, but the results of the geophysical surveys conducted there so far are very unconvincing. Is this the area where all the rough, unwanted stone, shifted from where they wanted to expand the graveyard in the 1900s, was dumped? It’s lumpy enough.

The Kenilworth History and Archaeology Society has been working away at this problem. If you have seen small groups of people running around with ropes, or what seems to be limping along with a sort of mono-Zimmer in the Fields, then you’ve seen the work happening.

The equipment helps us in finding what lies below the top-soil. If it is just soil, then there is little resistance to the small electric current (a milliamp or less). If, on the other hand, there is a lot of natural rock (there is a lot of that in Kenilworth, ask Severn Trent Water), or the remains of a building under the grass, then there will be high resistance to the electric current. The equipment records the readings, and a computer converts them into a pattern of dots ranging in shades from black to white. This gives an indication of where the interesting areas are.

In the picture, the clear diagonal line is a known modern pipe. Crossing it is a box with partitions. These lighter areas show low resistance, so is it foundations from which reusable stone has been taken or it is it a complex of ditches? It is not on the same alignment as the Abbey, so is it earlier (Roman?) or later (but what?).

Other areas that have shown interesting results are near the war memorial, and over the stream from the bowling green.