Field system and settlement on West Hill, Plush

Summary

Unenclosed Iron Age or Romano-British farmstead and part of its extensive field system 330m ENE of Lower Farm.

Reasons for Designation

Romano-British farmsteads are small agricultural units comprising groups of up to four circular or rectangular houses along with associated structures which may include wells, storage pits, corn-drying ovens and granary stores. These were sometimes constructed within a yard surrounded by a rectangular or curvilinear enclosure, and associated field systems, trackways and cemeteries may be located nearby. Most Romano-British farmsteads have been discovered by the analysis of aerial photographs. They usually survive in the form of buried features visible as crop and soil marks and occasionally as low earthworks. Often situated on marginal agricultural land and found throughout the British Isles, they date to the period of Roman occupation (c. A 43-450). Romano-British farmsteads are generally regarded as low status settlements, with the members of one family or small kinship group pursuing a mixed farming economy. Excavation at these sites has shown a marked continuity with later prehistoric settlements. There is little evidence of personal wealth and a limited uptake of the Romanised way of life. Romano- British farmsteads occur throughout southern England, but cluster on the chalk downland of Wessex, Sussex and Kent. They are the most representative form of rural settlement in the region during the Roman period. The unenclosed Iron Age or Romano-British farmstead and part of its extensive field system 330m ENE of Lower Farm survives well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, development, longevity, agricultural practices, social organisation, domestic arrangements, abandonment, adaptive re-use and overall landscape context.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 17 February 2016. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

This monument includes an unenclosed Iron Age or Romano British farmstead and part of its extensive associated field system situated on the steep south east facing slopes of a valley of a tributary to the River Piddle or Trent. The settlement and field system survive as a series of earthworks with hollows and scoops representing hut circles at least one of which measures up to 10m in diameter and is defined by an outer bank of up to 1.5m wide and 0.2m high. These huts are positioned amidst a series of terraces formed by lynchets producing rectangular fields across the hillside and accompanied by a lynchet defined track way. The fields have doubtless seen a period of re-use for medieval cultivation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

DO 758

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape 202023 and 202122

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