Summary
Enclosed Romano-British farmsteads 255m north west of Old Pasture Farm.
Reasons for Designation
Later Iron Age and Romano-British occupation included a range of settlement types. The surviving remains comprise farmsteads, hamlets, villages and hillforts, which together demonstrate an important sequence of settlement. The non-defensive enclosed farm or homestead represents the smallest and simplest of these types. Most early examples are characterised by a curvilinear enclosure with circular domestic buildings and associated agricultural structures. Where excavated, these sites are also found to contain pits or rectangular post- built structures for the storage of grain and other produce, evidence of an organised and efficient farming system. The surrounding enclosures would have provided protection against cattle rustling and tribal raiding. The simple farmsteads are sometimes superseded by rectilinear or triangular shaped enclosures with rectilinear buildings and many examples were occupied over an extended period and some grew in size and complexity. In central and southern England, most enclosed Iron Age farmsteads are situated in areas which are now under intensive arable cultivation. As a result, although some examples survive with upstanding earthworks, the majority have been recorded as crop- and soil-marks appearing on aerial photographs. Despite cultivation the enclosed Romano-British farmsteads 255m north west of Old Pasture Farm survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to their construction, development, longevity, date, chronological sequence, interrelationships, agricultural practices, social organisation, domestic arrangements and overall landscape context.
History
See Details.
Details
This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 2 June 2015. 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. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.
This monument includes several enclosed Romano-British farmsteads situated on the eastern floodplain of the River Avon between two small tributaries. The farmsteads survive as entirely buried structures, layers and deposits visible on aerial photographs as a complex series of rectangular enclosures of various sizes closely juxtaposed with an adjacent track way, paddocks and other ancillary structures and ditched features. The entrances to the enclosures associated with the farmsteads tend to be located to the west.