EAST MEON HUNDRED 



STEEP 



land on the common were awarded to the trustees for 

 the benefit of the school, of which 2 r. I op. was in 

 1872 exchanged for la. 2 r. 12 p. of land adjoin- 

 ing the recreation ground. A new school has been 

 erected upon the land acquired by exchange, and the 

 remainder of the allotment was sold in 1875, and 

 one-half of the proceeds applied towards the cost of 

 erecting the new schools, and the remaining half in 

 the purchase of 210 l6s. id. consols with the official 

 trustees. 



Tn 1872 the Rev. Henry Hawker by deed granted 



a piece of land to trustees to be used as a site for 

 almshouses for poor people of the parish, or otherwise 

 for the benefit of its inhabitants, or the inhabitants of 

 any other parish at their discretion, and William 

 Eames by his will, proved in 1879, bequeathed his 

 residuary estate for the erection and endowment of 

 the almshouses. In the result of proceedings in the 

 High Court 1,000 was expended in the erection of 

 the almshouses, and a sum of 2,321 \s. consols 

 was transferred to the official trustees of charitable 

 funds." 



36 Since the foregoing account of Steep 

 was in type, the Rev. H. P. Betts ha kindly 

 informed us that at the south end of the 

 parish, on the Stroud Common, the re- 

 mains of a Romano-British villa were dis- 

 covered in the summer of 1906, and a 

 systematic excavation, which is still in 

 progress, was begun in the following June. 



This excavation has opened up two wings 

 of a large courtyard type of house, one 

 containing dwelling-rooms and the other 

 baths. There is nothing remarkable in 

 the former, the general arrangement and 

 detail being typical of the period ; but the 

 bath chambers by reason of their number 

 and elaboration are, for an isolated 



country villa, somewhat unusual. Of the 

 many pavements only one along the 

 corridor of the north wing has a patterned 

 mosaic, and that is very badly damaged. 

 But the excavators have reason to hope 

 that foundations of more important cham- 

 bers will be discovered in the south and 

 east wings of the house next year. 



81 



ii 



