Thomas Cedric Bell (who referred to himself usually as “Cedric Bell” and occasionally as “T.C. Bell”) was born on 21 April, 1931, and died on 10 March, 2025, at the age of 93. He lived in Sockbridge, Penrith, UK, but has family around the world, including in New Zealand. He worked as a Chartered Engineer, with eight years at sea from Junior to Second Engineer; he spent seven and a half years as a surveyor, around eighteen years as a Works Engineer, two and a half years with Delta Metal, Birmingham, that employed c. 1,000 employees, and 26 years with Castrol Oil, which employed c. 450 and was the largest Lube Oil Factory in Europe, where he worked around fifteen years as Works Engineer and eleven years as Production Manager and Deputy Works Manager.
Cedric Bell’s hobby was Roman, Chinese, Norse, UK, Irish and New Zealand history. Exploring rammed earth dykes, stone gateways, river navigation, etc., he spent c. 26 years working on Roman sites. He actually lived in an ex-Roman town that is still surrounded by visible Roman sites. He has written 3 long survey reports on Roman Penrith, its region and Scotland’s Roman history. He has also spent six years training with the U. K. expert on Roman river navigation and he has given c. 150 site survey reports to U. K. museums and libraries. In addition, he has written a survey report comparing Roman with Chinese engineering and another on Roman and Chinese river and canal engineering. He also researched the ancient Chinese canal in Nicaraguan, which linked the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean (pre-Panama Canal). The actual survey on site was carried out by Col. John Blashford-Snell, Britain’s best-known explorer. Cedric Bell’s surveying experience extends to one survey on Cape Breton Island in Canada, five surveys in New Zealand, one in Ireland, and hundreds in Scotland and the Isles, and Northern England over a 30-year period. This includes using magnetic anomaly survey (MAS) and hiring expert geophysics surveyors.
Unfortunately, Cedric Bell was largely ignored by the academia and governments he reached out to. In fact, his notes mentioned which of the sites he found ended up being deliberately destroyed.
Cedric Bell carried out these surveys at his own expense for no monetary gain. He did not seek fame either. His dedication came from the love of finding the truth. He was generous to people who shared the same faith with him by patiently explaining his findings and mailing his survey reports to them. Cedric Bell’s discoveries and spirit will live forever in our minds and hearts through his memorable words:
We can but leave our stepping stones for others to follow.
All of Cedric Bell’s known surveys have been digitized and are uploaded to Zenodo’s research database (funded by the European Commission and hosted by CERN). This means Cedric Bell’s work is free to access, given DOI’s and is licensed as CC0 (Creative Commons License). It is hoped that publishing these surveys will attract people with an open mind to view information not publicly available before. It is hoped that this information will not be used to deliberately destroy other sites and instead will further Cedric Bell’s theories, whether to confirm or refute findings with more modern methodologies. Cedric Bell’s ORCID ID, for contacting researchers working in this field (and who knew him), is https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1189-3433 . We will happily answer your enquiries on Cedric Bell’s behalf, via this website’s “Contact” page. Cedric Bell and his estate own full copyright to all his works.
Cedric Bell’s Publications (click the DOI to view them on the Zenodo research repository):
Bell, T. C. (2025). Scotland’s Roman Heritage. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17202263
Bell, T. C. (2025). The Chinese Discovery of Britain c 5,000 Years Ago, And Their Later Support for the Roman Occupation. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17186820
Bell, T. C. (2025). The Chinese Discovery & Occupation of New Zealand (Pre-Maori). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17145088
Bell, T. C. (2025). Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17145028
Bell, T. C. (2012). Penrith’s Roman Heritage. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17145006
Bell, T. C. (2011). High Street Cumbria`s Best Known Roman Road. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17144983
View the surveys directly here: