A long-lost fragment of a Roman mosaic depicting sea creatures has returned to the Corinium Museum after 45 years, bringing a remarkable archaeological story back into the public eye.
The fragment is part of a spectacular second-century Roman mosaic discovered on Dyer Street in 1783. Although the museum is in Cirencester rather than Stroud, the find is relevant to residents across the wider Cotswolds who follow the region’s Roman heritage and museum collections.
A mosaic showing Roman sea life
The original mosaic depicted a procession of real and mythological sea creatures, including fish, an eel, bivalves, a crab and shrimp. It also showed swimming cupids, a sea-horse and a sea-leopard.
An intricate drawing by antiquarians Samuel Lysons and Richard Smirke suggested that the central design may have featured Neptune in his chariot, with a Nereid riding a sea creature.
The mosaic was reburied during the 19th century. It was partly uncovered again in the 1980s beneath the foundations of Gloucester House on Dyer Street, but building work over the years had damaged it.
One corner fragment was carefully lifted and saved by Stephen Clews, then assistant curator at the Corinium Museum, and conservator Marilee Parrott. It was later conserved by Nerina de Silva as part of a BSc thesis before entering the private care of the Lamplough family, who owned Gloucester House.
Family offers five-year museum loan
More than four decades later, Piers Lamplough, son of the former owner, contacted museum staff in 2026 to ask whether they would like to see the missing piece.
The fragment has now arrived at the Corinium Museum for the first time in 45 years. Lamplough has offered to leave it at the museum on a five-year loan, allowing plans to be developed for a temporary public display.
Emma Stuart, director of the Corinium Museum, said staff had believed the mosaic fragment was gone for good.
“We all thought the mosaic lost forever so to have a fragment find its way back to us after all this time is incredibly exciting.”
Stuart said the fragment was especially important because it provided tangible evidence supporting early illustrations and photographs from the 1980s of another extraordinary mosaic from Roman Corinium.
The museum already displays two mosaics known as the Seasons and Hunting Dogs. Both are believed to have come from the same Roman town house that commissioned the sea-life mosaic.
“When you see it up close, you get a wonderful impression of the colours and materials used,” Stuart added.
A connection across generations
Lamplough said his family had always seen the fragment as something to look after rather than as property to possess.
“We never truly own history. We simply become its custodians for a time, preserving it until it finds its way to the next generation.”
He described the fragment’s journey through nearly 2,000 years as a connection between the people who created it, rediscovered it and helped conserve it.
He also highlighted an unexpected link: he lives in Sri Lanka, the same place as Nerina de Silva, who first helped conserve the fragment.
“To me and my family, this fragment has never simply been an archaeological object,”
he said. “It is a reminder that history has a way of bringing people together, celebrating those from the past and helping to write the next chapter in the story.”
Dr Pat Witts, of the Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics, said the mosaic had been described as one of the best drawn and most classical in style of all Romano-British mosaics.
“Thrilling”
was Witts’s description of the fragment’s survival and return to the museum on loan.
The fragment is expected to go on public display at the Corinium Museum by the end of 2026. The source does not give a confirmed opening date for the display.
