Between 1890 and 1909 the Society of Antiquaries, with the encouragement of the fourth
Duke of Wellington, uncovered the area within the town wall.
Their plans of Calleva (see an example below)
have formed the foundation for study ever since.
In 1891 the Duke wrote to Joseph Stevens, the first Curator of Reading Museum,
offering the Collection on loan. Each season thereafter
material was deposited in the Museum
and put on display in the Silchester Gallery (see above).
The directors of the excavation became honorary curators of the Silchester Collection in
the Museum and successive curators and researchers have studied and analysed the material ever since.
object no. 2002.34.14
object no. 2002.34.103
The notebooks that the Antiquaries must have kept have not been located, but a report
of each season of excavation was published in the journal 'Archaeologia'. Each year
photographers recorded the work and this collection of photographs is held by
Reading Museum. These form a fantastic record, both personal and
archaeological, of a Victorian excavation.
The excavation team in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
The pot in the wheelbarrow was called the Jubilee pot to mark the occasion.
object no. 2002.34.110
