The corner of a tile-built wall about 3ft thick was uncovered in a field at Messing in 1932. The ground surface was littered with tiles, two of which are preserved in Colchester Museum. <1> <2> <3> Corner of a well-made Roman building of stone, tiles, and pink mortar, almost certainly a villa, was revealed during ploughing at Messing in 1930. The site lies 950 yds NW of Messing Church and 130 yds south of Domsey Brook. Fragments of Roman tile can be picked up all over the field. About 10 or 12ft of foundation wall was uncovered. <4> <5> In 1975 a heavy scatter of tile with numerous flint nodules was clearly visible on the surface of the field. <6> The site is by a brook, about 1 mile NW of the village, and is part grassland, part wooded, part cultivated. The north edge of the ploughed field, most of the grass area and the NE corner of the wood were examined. A small scatter of RB coarse pottery came from the ploughed field and the ditch by the wood. Roman tile fragments and one sherd of Samian were also found. The sparse Roman remains could suggest a small building. A later addition to this source lists a Roman box-flue corner fragment and a red tessera cube. <7> <8> <9>

Site Assessment = Site under plough in 1975. <6>