DID off-duty Roman legionnaires pop into the Feathers for rest and recreation? It's one of the questions a team of archaeologists working on the site of the former hotel in Lydney might help to answer.
A team of archaeology experts has been called in to evaluate the site by Bath planning firm G.L. Hearn, which is helping food giant Tesco with its revised application for a new store on the site.
The move came after a request from the County Archaeology Department and the team led by Dr Andrew Townsend has already stripped away layers of the past to reveal cobbled pathways and earthen floors, all carefully labelled and entered on detailed plans.
"It is too early as yet to say exactly what we are looking at here," he said as assistants toiled under beating sun in the trench excavations on the levelled site.
But sections of foundations, walls and floors already show the Feathers, originally the important coaching inn the Plume of Feathers, must have been built over several times in the past.
The proximity of important Roman buildings at Lydney Park and the nearby riverside Roman dock make the chance of an exciting find a possibility, as do later connections with the Wintour family.
Dr Townsend said he and his assistants from the Avon Archaeology Unit, an independent investigating firm, would be preparing a report over the next three weeks.
Tesco has put in a revised planning application for the High Street site after purchasing the Feathers and demolishing the old hotel building to make way for a car park.
The new plans incorporate a supermarket, petrol filling station and parking.