Roman Villa at Clearwell Farm

Summary

The buried remains of a Romano-British villa, associated buildings and agricultural enclosures.

Reasons for Designation

The Romano-British villa at Clearwell Farm is designated for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: a good example of a Roman villa that survives well in the form of buried archaeological features;
* Potential: partial excavation and other investigative work have indicated that the site retains valuable information relating to both the development of the villa as a whole and the function and occupation of the individual structures;
* Group value: it stands in a prominent position within what was a key iron-working area during the Roman period.

History

Romano-British villas were extensive rural complexes of domestic, agricultural and occasionally industrial buildings that were constructed throughout the Roman period, from the first to the fourth centuries AD. One of the key criterion of a villa is that it was a rural establishment, independent of larger settlements. They seem to have been a fundamental part of the model of Romanisation, with the spread of a villa-owning elite typically at the centre of an agricultural estate. Villas are often thought of as high-status buildings, with hypocausts, architectural ornamentation and baths as common features. Interestingly though, most excavated sites in Britain appear to have developed from simpler, perhaps ‘lower status’, to ‘higher status’ or more substantial buildings. The term 'villa' is now commonly used to describe either the estate or the buildings themselves.

Villas are found throughout lowland Britain and occasionally beyond. The least elaborate served as simple farmhouses whilst, for the most complex, the term 'palace' is not inappropriate. Most were partly or wholly stone-built, many with a timber-framed superstructure on masonry footings. Roofs were generally tiled and the house could feature tiled or mosaic floors, underfloor heating, wall plaster, glazed windows and cellars. Ancillary buildings may include workshops, storage for agricultural produce and accommodation for farm labourers and were typically arranged around or alongside a courtyard, surrounded by paddocks, pens, yards and features such as granaries, threshing floors, wells and hearths.

The existence of a villa at Clearwell Farm was first indicated by crop marks on aerial photographs during the summer of 1976, although its location has appeared at other times as a diffuse parched area. Its extent and form was confirmed by geophysical survey and small-scale excavations between 1985 and 2004. Further fieldwork between 2003 and 2008, including excavation and a full geophysical survey, confirmed the character and form of the villa. In addition to the main villa building, an aerial photographic mapping survey of the Forest of Dean by English Heritage in 2006 identified the cropmarks of a number of possible small buildings to the south, east and south-east, as well as possible field boundaries or walls indicating a larger complex. Analysis of the pottery recovered during the 1985 excavation by the Forest of Dean Local History Society indicates that the site was occupied from the second century AD to at least the fourth century; more recently, trial trenching in 1996 found some evidence for late Iron Age activity on the site. The excavation in 1985 also revealed evidence of animal husbandry, and the site has, therefore, been interpreted as a farm, although no evidence of arable cultivation was found.

The presence of fragments of slag and iron ore in the topsoil, plus the site's close proximity to an extensive area of scowle workings (traditionally interpreted as the remains of early open-cast iron ore extraction and almost unique to the Forest of Dean to the east and north-east) could indicate an additional industrial function.

Details

Principal elements: situated on a limestone plateau at Clearwell Farm is the site of a Romano-British villa with associated ancillary buildings and field boundaries that was occupied from the second century until at least the fourth century AD.

The areas to the east and north-east of the villa have been disturbed as a result of the construction of a reservoir and a substantial chicken house together with associated service roads and are not included in the scheduling.

Description: aerial photography in 1976 revealed a substantial rectangular building in the central part of the site which was confirmed by a small excavation in 1985. It is a corridor-type villa, mainly in the form of buried masonry foundations, which is considered to represent the domestic focus of the villa estate. The building is orientated roughly west to east, measuring at least 22m in length and 12m wide, and is divided internally into at least nine rooms. Some 30m to the south is a second possible building which measures approximately 12m by 10m. The 1985 investigation uncovered sandstone masonry, gullies, pits and possible post holes. Artefacts recovered included a large quantity of Roman pottery as well as stone tesserae, iron slag, nails, glass and animal bone. Analysis of the pottery has indicated that the villa site was occupied from the second century AD and that it continued in use until the fourth, and possibly into the fifth century.

Aerial photographic mapping in 2006 by English Heritage's National Mapping Programme identified a number of other features at the site which have been interpreted as several less substantial buildings to the south, east and south-east of the main villa building and field boundaries or walls, indicating a larger complex. In addition linear features are depicted to the west and north of the principal building on the aerial photographs which have been interpreted as the remains of banks. The western feature is orientated north-south and is some 205m in length with a break towards the southern end, while that to the north measures approximately 83m long. Although these features are no longer visible above ground, they are considered to define the western and northern boundaries of the villa.

All fence posts are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath these features, however, is included.

Sources

Books and journals
Hancocks, Jackson, Pearson, , Evaluation at Clearwell Farm, Clearwell, Gloucestershire, Report 487 Hereford and Worcester County Council, (1996)
Catchpole, T, Clearwell Farm, Newland, Gloucestershire, Archaeological Observations, (1996)
Atkinson, H, Journal of the Forest of Dean Local History Society in Excavations at Stock Farm, Clearwell: The New Regard of the Forest of Dean 2, (1986)

Other
Fiona Small and Cathy Stoertz, The Forest of Dean Mapping Project, Gloucestershire: A report for the National Mapping Programme, English Heritage, (2006)
Dean Archaeology Group, Resistivity Survey on Stock Farm Villa, 2004, Gloucestershire County Council Historic Environment Record,
Gloucestershire County Council, The Scowles and Associated Iron Industry Survey: Project Number 3342, Project Report Volume 1, 2007,

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