EDO5021 - Discovery of tesselated pavement, Lenthay Common, Sherborne

A tessellated pavement was discovered at Lenthay Green in AD 1836 '…The pavement was removed, and placed in the Dairy of Sherborne Castle.' (2). The pavement was found immediately south of the railway and, although the exact circumstances of the discovery are not recorded, it is tempting to think that the find was made during construction work for the railway. However, the London and South Western Railway was not completed until 1860 and it seems unlikely that it took 24 years to construct. The mosaic was originally some 4m square, but only the central portion was lifted and relaid at Sherborne Castle. 'It has opposite borders plain and chequered respectively, enclosing an eight-pointed star of interlaced guilloche squares. Within this frame a large naked Apollo sits playing the lyre while Marsyas prances before him, blowing on the double flute. This crude yet lively provincial version of a classical myth is now reset in the dairy floor at Sherborne Castle…' (2)