We are all asked to recycle as much as we can these days but did most of us even recycle as children? The oldest amongst us, at most, perhaps remember recycling beer or pop bottles, when we got tuppence for each bottle returned!
Simon Elliott, a local Roman scholar, thinks that he has found evidence that the Saxons were recycling long before us - repurposing stone from a Roman temple that was in East Farleigh. The remains of which are still there and have been excavated. The arch between the Nave and the chancel in West Farleigh Church is unusual, as it is made of tufa a very light limestone once found locally. Its dimensions exactly fit the entrance arch to the Roman temple.
The archway at the west door of the church, now in the base of the bell tower, also fits the base of another archway in the Roman Temple.
It seems very likely that the Saxons used the ruins of the temple as a quarry or their own local reclamation yard!
In addition to these discoveries, when the pebble dash was removed from the church walls, they appear to have been made of rubble, not the neatly cut limestone that has been used on the tower and the Vestry. Maybe this rubble was also sourced at the Roman temple? The canny Saxon builders clearly did not want to transport heavy building materials any further than absolutely necessary.