Extensive kiln sites and associated claypits exist, which date from the Roman occupation of Britain. The local antiquary Major A.G. Wade undertook limited investigations in the 1930s and 40s. Major research was undertaken in the 1970s by the Alice Holt Survey Group, under the co-direction of Malcolm Lyne and Rosemary Jefferies. These indicated that the Forest and surrounding areas were one of the most important centres for the industrial-scale production of domestic ceramics in Roman Britannia, supplying up to 60% of all pottery found in excavations at Staines and London and being transported across south-east England throughout the period from AD60 to the early 5th century, when industrial pottery production ceased. Alice Holt gives its name to a particular diagnostic pottery style from the Romano-British period, "Alice Holt Pottery", a coarse grey sandy ware .