Romano-British settlement on Stoke Moor

Summary

The monument includes a Romano-British settlement that dates approximately from the 2nd to the late 3rd century AD.

Reasons for Designation

The Romano-British settlement on Stoke Moor, Rodney Stoke is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

Survival:
* it is a good example of a rural settlement that survives as earthworks and below-ground remains;
* it contains a wide range of features including building platforms, enclosures, trackways, field systems and water control systems which provide evidence about the occupation and land use of the Somerset Levels during the Roman period.

Potential:
* due to the high water table, the preservation of below-ground archaeological deposits, including organic material, along with palaeoenvironmental and geoarchaeological evidence is believed to be good and will add to our knowledge of this site and the character of the contemporary landscape.

Documentation:
* the level of documentation resulting from the earthwork survey, aerial photographs and LiDAR images has enhanced our understanding and the significance of the monument.

History

Romano-British settlements are formed by groups of farmsteads and houses, usually individually enclosed in yards, and are often associated with enclosures, ditches and field systems. They are known to have existed on the Somerset Levels from the 1st century AD, and some continued in use until the 4th century. Few sites have been excavated and many have only been identified through the recovery of Roman material such as pottery or coins during irrigation work. The recorded settlements are mainly confined to the valleys of the Rivers Brue and Axe, although some are sited along the coastline. A study (Rippon et al, 2000) of environmental evidence such as pollen, plant microfossils and molluscs has indicated that salt marsh conditions prevailed in parts of the North Somerset Levels during much of the Roman period, rather than being submerged as previously thought. In the upper Axe valley, some of the Romano-British settlement sites appear to be linked by an embanked linear ditch, the construction of which would have represented a significant investment of resources. It has been described as a probable canal (McDonnell, 1979 and Grove, 2002), though it has yet to be established if it was built for navigation or formed part of a drainage system relating to land reclamation. It is known that cattle and sheep were grazed in the area during the Roman period, but finds of quern stones, along with the discovery of a corn drier at Kenn near Clevedon, provide evidence that there was also arable cultivation.

The Romano-British settlement on Stoke Moor in the upper Axe valley was first identified in 1927 when agricultural activities uncovered structural remains. Roman material, including pottery and a coin hoard, recovered at the same time indicate that the site was occupied from the 2nd to at least the late 3rd century AD. The site was surveyed in 1984-1985 during an archaeological survey of an extensive area of the Somerset Levels (McDonnell, 1985), and further aerial photographs were taken in 2015 as part of Historic England’s Reconnaissance Recording programme. It is situated adjacent to a former course (known as a paleochannel) of the River Axe, a significant waterway during the Roman period, and it is likely that the settlement would have exploited local marine resources. Investigations on Monk Moor (Rippon, 2000) to the north uncovered evidence for an increase in the colonisation of salt marsh vegetation and the deposition of estuarine silt in the area in the later 4th century AD, probably due to a rise in sea level, and that this may have led to the abandonment of the settlements on lower ground, including those in the upper Axe Valley.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
The monument includes the earthworks and buried remains of a rural settlement dating from the Roman period which is situated on the estuarine alluvial clays and fen peats of the low-lying Axe valley in the Somerset Levels. It lies to the east of a relict channel of the River Axe and extends over an area of approximately 18.5ha.

DESCRIPTION
The monument comprises a complex of Romano-British settlement remains, field systems and linear features, including trackways and ditched drainage systems, which survive as slight earthworks up to 0.6m high and as buried remains visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The settlement appears to be concentrated in two principal areas and may represent several farmsteads in close proximity. To the north of Brook Bank (Draycott to Cocklake road) there is a group of rectangular and sub-rectangular enclosures that are approached from the south-east by a possible trackway. The largest enclosure is bounded by a ditch and outer bank and its interior is subdivided. A later drainage ditch, Hindon Rhyne, cuts diagonally across it. Immediately to the south-west are smaller enclosures, possibly yards or paddocks, and several have a platform, possibly for a building, in one corner. To the south-east is a curvilinear ditch.

To the south of Brook Bank, the former course (palaeochannel) of the River Axe marks the western extent of the settlement. This has become largely infilled over time but can be traced on the ground as a shallow depression. The eastern and south-eastern limits of the settlement appear to be defined by a bank, some 20m wide, which is depicted on the 1985 survey and on LiDAR-derived images and is visible intermittently as a low earthwork. It may represent a flood defensive feature or a boundary bank, although it is unclear if it is contemporary with the settlement since it overlies several ditched features and is itself cut by a sub-rectangular platform. Within the area defined by these features, and on either side of Culvert Drove, is a close grouping of small platforms and small yard areas which are probably associated with the domestic buildings of the settlement, together with several large enclosures. A section of paved roadway edged with stones and part of a courtyard were discovered in this area in 1927. To the north-east, west, south-west is a complex arrangement of linear features on various alignments. Some appear to be field boundaries; others may relate to drainage, including a series of irregular grypes (narrow linear hollows to drain a field) running east to west on the south side of Brook Bank; and the larger examples to the south-east may be flood defences. Not all of these features are necessarily associated with the settlement, and some may represent later phases of activity. Parts of the Axe Valley, and elsewhere on the Levels, were subject to further drainage improvements, land reclamation and reoccupation during the medieval period.

Roman artefacts recovered from the site include two Romano-British wheel-turned urns which were discovered in 1927. One of them contained a hoard of 43 coins dating from AD 138 to 296, from Antonius Pius to Allectus. A further ten coins from the same period were found nearby. Other finds include fragments of a quern stone, a bronze angular brooch and the back of a bronze fibula, both of Roman date.

Evidence for Romano-British occupation elsewhere in the upper Axe valley and more widely in the North Somerset Levels reflects the wider contextual setting of the settlement on Stoke Moor.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The scheduled area includes the Romano-British settlement remains and other archaeological features on either side of Brook Bank which runs through the northern part of the monument. Much of the western boundary of the monument is defined by the former channel of the River Axe, since this formed a natural boundary to the original settlement, and to the north of this, by Hixham Rhyne. Elsewhere, the scheduling follows field boundaries and rhynes. This is to take account for any inaccuracies in the plotting of the archaeological features identified from the aerial photographs, LiDAR and earthwork survey. Archaeological features are present beyond the scheduled area, but are not yet well enough understood to justify inclusion in the scheduling. The monument, therefore, has maximum dimensions of 525m from north to south and 400m from east to west.

EXCLUSIONS
The surfaces of the metalled roads, the vehicular bridges and parapets, footbridges, Stoke Moor pumping station, the retaining walls and gabion baskets of Culvert Drove and Draycott Brook irrigation ditches, and all gates, gateposts and fence posts are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath all these features is included.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

22809

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
St George Gray, H, Roman Remains in Rodney Stoke Moor in Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol. 73, (1927), 129-30
Rippon, S, The Romano-British Exploitation of Coastal Wetlands: Survey and Excavation on the North Somerset Levels, 1993-97 in Britannia, Vol. 31, (2000), 69-200
Groves, J C, Reclamation and Utilisation of the Upper Axe Valley during the Roman Period in Archaeology in the Severn Estuary , Vol. 13, (2002), 65-87
McDonnell, R R J, The Upper Axe Valley, An Interim Statement in The Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol. 123, (1979), 75-82

Websites
24283: Romano British settlement site, Stoke Moor, accessed 19 January 2022 from https://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/24283#

Other
Context One Archaeological Services Ltd, November 2020 (updated June 2021), Land adjacent to Pump House Farm, Whitesomes Drove, Rodney Stoke, Somerset. Archaeological Monitoring & Recording. Written Scheme of Investigation
Context One Archaeological Services Ltd, February 2018, Archaeological Evaluation, Land adjacent to Pump House Farm, Whitesomes Drove, Rodney Stoke, Somerset, Assessment Report
Historic England, June 2015, Aerial photograph, 29705_015
S Rippon, 2000, Clayland colonisation - recent work on Romano-British and medieval reclamation in the Somerset Levels. In C J Webster (ed), Somerset Archaeology: Papers to mark 150 years of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society
R R J McDonnell, 1985, Archaeological Survey of the Somerset Claylands. Report on Survey Work in 1984-85

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