Project looking for Folkestone's oral history

The remains of the villa will disappear over the cliff edge in the next few years

A project exploring Folkestone's pre-1500 past is to launch a new phase exploring the area's oral history.

The Town Unearthed project will be looking for people to tell stories handed down from parents to children, or told to those new to the area.

In February a shop in Tontine Street was opened to display artefacts from a newly excavated Roman villa site.

Over 300 bags of artefacts have so far been removed from the villa on the cliffs above Folkestone.

Lynda Pearce of the community archives and heritage group said: "What we are embarking on could be termed the archaeology of the mind, because we want people to dig into their memories of things they were told."

Working on the artefacts

Samian pottery found at the Roman villa site

The Town Unearthed's shop, incorporating an area for processing finds and an information centre, was set up at 65 Tontine Street and is open to the public who want to find out more, or to volunteer.

The Roman villa on Folkestone's West Cliff is still being excavated by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust.

The trust's Dr Andrew Richardson said the villa was continuing to erode over the edge and archaeologists were hoping to capture as much information from the site before it crumbled into the sea.

The villa was built on the site of an iron age roundhouse and was a key trading post on the routes between the Mediterranean and Britain.

Tontine Street shop

The volunteers work with a small group of archaeologists on the finds

The project has been given use of the shop by The Creative Foundation until April.

Excavation work will continue in the summer on the Roman, iron age and prehistoric remains on the site.

For further information or to become involved in the project email: [e-mail]