Monument record MDO414 - Romano-British settlement on Fordington Down, Bradford Peverell

Black pottery, some Samian ware and bones found in ploughed land in an area put under cultivation following bulldozing of lynchets from a prehistoric field system in 1950. At least some of the pottery appears to be Late Iron Age. Subsequent finds include' burnt areas' and burnt flints, large, unabraded fragments of earthenware tile, a bronze 'dolphin' variant brooch and a bronze armlet or bracelet. New Forest Ware pottery extends the date of the site into the final quarter of the third century, but firm evidence for fourth century activity appears lacking.

Part of the Celtic field system and settlement area are shown but not described on an oblique air photograph taken in 1937. <1> SY 66639095. A number of lynchets of a Celtic field system (see SY 69 SE 38) were levelled in 1950 when about 12 acres of Fordington Down immediately south-west of Square Coppice were taken under cultivation revealing black pottery, a few sherds of Samian ware and some bones. Farrar found more pottery in 1951, near the fence which coincided with one of the field lynchets along the western side of Fordington Bottom. Most of the identifiable sherds were Iron Age C in character though not necessarily of pre-conquest date. Activity of imbrex tiles and the Samian found earlier. One or two small and worn sherds may have belonged to the Iron Age A or B tradition. The concentration of finds in a restricted area and evidence on air photographs of a trackway and traces of an enclosure on its southside (SY 66619101) seemed to suggest the proximity of a settlement associated with the cultivation lynchets. In 1949, Mr Ian Ellis found a coin of Constantius II in this settlement area. <2-3> Farrar refers to the site (SY 666910) as Romano-British settlement and suggests that it was perhaps distinct from the settlement on the west slope of Fordington Down discovered in 1956. <4> SY 666910. Listed as Romano-British settlement by RCHM. <7> The site was examined with a view to scheduling it, but, much reduced by ploughing, its character and extent are uncertain, and it is not rrecommended for scheduling. Ground photo with archive report. <8>

Record last edited

Oct 31 2023 2:05PM