Harlow

The ruins of a Gallo-Roman circular temple stand on a low hill in Harlow, Essex. Local people had long noticed ancient walls and finds, and in 1764 Richard Gough recorded them. Excavations in 1921, 1927, 1936–37 and again in 1962–71 and 1985–87 showed it was a Roman temple site with earlier activity. Finds include Bronze Age traces and a definite sanctuary from the first century BC. Excavators uncovered Celtic coins, brooches, a round timber building and a stone temple built about AD 80. The square stone shrine measured roughly 5.5 m across, surrounded by a 14.6 m ambulatory. By the third century the precinct had a stone wall, side buildings and an altar that may have borne an inscription to the emperors. Today the temple’s outline is marked in paving stones within a small park. Visitors walk past the low mound where the cella once stood and see the paved ambulatory. Fragments of painted plaster, mosaic floors and statue pieces lie in the grass, while information panels describe the altar and possible goddess. The quiet hilltop offers views over modern Harlow and a sense of the centuries between Bronze Age worship and Roman rule.