The excavation near Doods Road, Reigate, in 2004 of a Type III Roman rectangular updraught tile kiln revealed a sophisticated structure with a facade of stone blocks that provided the first evidence for the dressing of ‘Reigate Stone’ in the district during the Roman period, and an elaborate drainage system of box-flue tiles. Most bear combed schemes, but thirteen are roller-stamped with dies of Lowther’s Types 4 and 5. A re-modelling that included a narrowing of the fire tunnel is archaeomagnetically dated to the late 1st or early 2nd century AD. The kiln is the first of several within the environs of Doods Farm to have been fully investigated, and the tilery complex may have formed part of a regional industry with Ashtead, 18km distant. The facade, fire tunnel and three cross-walls of the combustion chamber were subsequently lifted intact for eventual public display. The early date of the kiln and its sophisticated construction provide a regionally important insight into the origins and development of the tile industry in Roman Britain. The report has been published in Surrey Archaeological Collections 106, 2024.
