Roman site at Manor Farm

Summary

The buried remains of a multi-period Romano-British farmstead with structural remains and a hypocaust system, with further post-built buildings and probable areas of industrial working.

Reasons for Designation

The Roman farmstead site at Manor Farm, Allington, Chippenham, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Period/ Representativity: this is a representative example of a Roman settlement site with reasonable survival for its type and locality;
* Survival/ Condition: archaeological evaluation has demonstrated that part of the settlement survives reasonably well, despite plough damage, retaining considerable evidence of structural remains and occupation, probably from the C1 AD to the C3 AD;
* Potential: archaeological evaluation has confirmed that the site is a high status Roman farmstead with significant potential for adding to our understanding of the development of the agrarian economy and the social and economic changes that the Roman Conquest brought;
* Diversity: the settlement at Manor farm is of particular significance as an early site which does not appear to have had an extensive later period of occupation. This will allow a greater understanding of the earliest phases of Roman settlement in the area.

History

The hamlet of Allington is a former tithing of the Parish of Chippenham, and its name has Saxon origins. The Romano-British site at Manor Farm, Allington survives as below ground remains on farmland close to the A350 Chippenham bypass, and the land has served as arable land pasture in the modern era. It has been suggested that the farmstead may have later Iron Age origins, as earlier features underlie the Roman enclosure. Evidence of prehistoric and Roman activity has been found in the wider area, principally on the route of the A350 bypass and Chippenham Golf Course. Prehistoric evidence is limited to finds of Mesolithic and Bronze Age flints. Cropmarks were captured on aerial photography taken of the site in the late 1970s and the 1980s, which showed evidence of a large rectilinear enclosure with internal subdivisions, and the site has been on the Wiltshire Historic Environment Record since then. A limited archaeological investigation by Chippenham College, when a single trench was excavated, followed in 1983-5 (Wilcox 1987). Subsequent survey work and evaluation in 2014/5 has confirmed the Roman origins of many of the buried remains at the site. Comparisons of the available evidence with similar Roman sites in the Chippenham area and nationally, indicate that the site, which appears to be an enclosed farmstead of at least two phases, is of probable third century date with earlier origins. Pottery found at the west end of the site is probably of first or second century date.

There are no known Anglo-Saxon remains on the site. Late-medieval pottery was, however, found there in the 1980s. Manor Farm appears to have remained in agricultural use throughout the post-medieval period and much of its current field layout predates an estate map of 1777, although there was some consolidation by 1885. The current boundary that cuts through the site was in place by 1885. In the C21 the site continues to be in agricultural use. In 2013 the cropmarks were recorded in English Heritage’s West Wiltshire NAIS (National Archaeological Identification Survey) project. In 2014/5 there was an archaeological evaluation by geophysical survey and machine dug trial trenching across the site.

Details

The area includes the remains of a Roman farmstead with evidence of occupation from the first to the third century. Recent surveys and excavations revealed archaeological deposits lying 0.12 to 0.3m beneath the surface, overlying earlier ditches. The ground level drops from the north to the south-west.

The Roman farmstead is enclosed by a rectilinear ditch at least 110m by 75m, and between 1.7m and 2.8m wide and more than 0.7m deep. The enclosure is approximately 1.3 hectares in area. The northern ditches are straight with right-angle corners, and the southern ditches are less regular with curved corners. There are several internal divisions that suggest that the site had several phases of construction and use. The internal divisions measure c.50m x 18m and 50m x 44m, defined by ditches 1.7m to 2.5m wide and 0.58m to 0.9m deep. The north-eastern part of the enclosure has substantial structural remains, including stone walls. The faced outer stone walls are built against natural cornbrash. The pilae of a hypocaust system survive well, with a collapsed opus signinum floor. There is evidence of a furnace, and two 1m by 1m approx. square stone piers stand within the structure. The pilae stacks are flat tile, but there are also some dressed stone plinths at floor level, possibly for structural columns. To the south are further structural remains, including robbed out stone walls, some of which may be of a separate construction phase. In the centre of the north-eastern ditch is a 16m by 12m quarry pit of uncertain date. There are two external enclosures adjoining the main enclosure. To the north east a rectangular enclosure contains a sub-circular feature surrounding 8 large pits or areas of burning, and with a possible earlier ring ditch. The other enclosure is to the east, is smaller, and also contains pits. A series of linear ditches, possibly of earlier date, extend north-eastwards across the western ditch, and outside the eastern ditch, extending northwards for approximately 200m.

To the south of the structural remains are several linear series of post-holes that probably relate to one or more buildings. Evaluation indicates that one of the post-built buildings is 0.019 hectares in area. Further south, beyond a post-medieval hedge is evidence of industrial workings, possibly including a corn drier. An additional wide ditch crosses the southern part of the enclosure on a north-south orientation.

The outlying fields beyond the main enclosure have produced little evidence of Roman origin. An extensive land drain constructed of limestone slates to the south west is probably of post-medieval date.

Quantities of pottery have been recovered from the site. They include a mixture of continental and regionally-traded wares such as Black Burnished wares and Samian, indicating a first to second century date. Other pottery finds include grey, hard-fired sandy ware and colour-coated ware, orange-brown, hard-fired, sandy ware, red, hard-fired ware, and grey-white ware. Building material including architectural stonework, building stone, box flue tile, a capping tile and Pennant stone roof tiles has been recovered. Other finds include Roman coins, a Bronze Age flint scraper, other flints, possible Mesolithic flint fragments, iron slag, nails, an iron ring, spearhead and knife blade, small glass sherds fragments of animal bone and oyster shell.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: The monument boundary extends from ST9033375155 (north) to ST9042975117 (east) to ST9033074977 (south) to ST9025175047 (west). A buffer of 5m is included all around the monument for the support and preservation of the site and to allow for some of the features extending beyond the monument, as seen in the geophysical survey and aerial photography.

EXCLUSIONS: the hedge that crosses the monument from ST9029375108 to ST9038375027 is excluded from the scheduling.

Sources

Other
Wilcox R. A sampling excavation at Manor Farm, Allington, nr Chipenham, Wilts., 1987
Sabin D. & Donaldson K. Land off the A350, Chippenham, Wiltshire: Geophysical Survey Report, 2014
Field, N. Heritage Assessment for The Range, Land off A350, Chippenham, Wilts., 2014

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.