Reasons for Designation
Romano-British aggregate villages are nucleated settlements formed by groups of five or more subsistence level farmsteads enclosed either individually or collectively, or with no formal boundary. Most enclosures, where they occur, are formed by curvilinear walls or banks, sometimes surrounded by ditches, and the dwellings are usually associated with pits, stock enclosures, cultivation plots and field systems, indicating a mixed farming economy. In use throughout the Roman period (c.43-450 AD), they often occupied sites of earlier agricultural settlements. In view of their rarity, all positively identified examples with surviving remains are considered to merit protection. Despite ploughing, the erection of a telephone line and erosion from cattle, the settlement 290m south east of Eckington Fields Farm survives comparatively well as a series of buried features. The settlement is of considerable significance and forms part of a wider archaeological landscape of prehistoric and Roman settlements on both sides of the River Avon. The monument will include archaeological deposits containing important information relating to the construction, use, occupation and abandonment of the settlement in addition to providing environmental evidence.
Details
The monument includes a prehistoric and Roman settlement located on a gentle west facing slope of Bredon Hill overlooking the River Avon. The settlement is known from cropmarks visible on aerial photographs and survives as a double-ditched trapezoidal enclosure, sub-rectangular enclosures and linear features. The trapezoidal enclosure is defined by two parallel ditches with rounded corners and is located at the south east of the site. A complex series of overlapping smaller sub-rectangular, single-ditched enclosures are situated close to the north and north western sides of the trapezoidal enclosure. Many linear ditches are visible as field boundaries throughout the site.
The extent and character of the site is comparable with a site at Netherton (NGR: SO 9914 4223) that is dated to the prehistoric and Roman periods.
A post and wire telephone line leads across the monument, the posts are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath is included.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
WT 229
Legacy System:
RSM - OCN
End of official list entry
