Find Spot record MDO4291 - Iron Age and Romano British settlement site and burials, Allards Quarry, Marnhull

Iron Age and Romano-British settlement site and inhumation burials excavated by C E Bean in 1932-39 and Mrs A Williams in 1944-5. An Iron Age settlement, which was then unoccupied from the 1st century until late in the 3rd century when it was reoccupied. Finds included pottery, a bronze ring and brooch, a shale armlet, spindle whorls, querns, combs, sling pellets and two coins of the Durotriges. Features dating to the late 3rd century included a Roman hut, gullies, hearths and several burials, and coins and pottery were found.

The quarry face has receded to the edge of the wood. A few fragments of Romano-British pottery were noted in the northern face of the quarry but neither in the wood nor in the unquarried area to the north was there any visible trace of antiquity. <3> I have worked here for a considerable number of years and was present when Mrs. Audrey Williams excavated the site. She appeared to have excavated the thickest area of the settlement for since then only a few pits have been found and there is less and less material unearthed as the quarry face moves westward. I have found fragments of rotary querns. No foundations have been found since 1945.<3.1> The circular cropmarks visible in three fields centred ST 797199, ST 798199 and ST 798198 on RAF air photographs <6.1> are natural variations in vegetation. The quarry remains much as described in the field report of 27.7.55 <3>; it is still active. No further discoveries of Iron Age/Romano-British material have been reported. <6> Additional bibliography. <7> Description of the 2 fragments of one slab of Roman sideboard found at the site. <8>

Record last edited

Oct 2 2022 1:57PM