Monument record MDO7518 - Iron Age settlement at Bucknowle Farm, Corfe Castle

Evidence in the form of buildings, pottery finds and other artefacts indicative of Iron Age settlement, found on this site over several years of investigation.

SY 95458154. Late Iron Age occupation and a Roman villa site discovered at Bucknowle Farm. Excavations by J. Collins and N. H. Field between 1976-1980 investigated the site of a tesselated floor previously discovered by P. A. Brown in 1975. The earliest features on the site were ditches, gullies and other fabrics indicating an extensive activity from the late Iron Age to the mid-1st century AD. The first major structure found in the excavations however, was a late 3rd-mid 4th century tripartite villa-wing comprising a corridor, domestic rooms and service rooms which formed an extension to another, earlier building. The corridor of the villa wing had been extended over earlier foundations around which ran an external drain and this corridor also linked the villa range. The frigidarium and successive plunge baths were identified with at least two main building phases followed by industrial use when the bath was filled in. The other end of the corridor was traced connecting the villa range to subsidiary buildings together with further walls overlying earlier features. (For similar references see Britannia 7 1976 p360; Ibid 9 1978 p459-62; Ibid 10 1979 p 326-7; Ibid 11 1980 p 389-90) Plan (from p.460 Britannia 9 1978). <1-5> It is now clear that the earliest occupation on the site dates to the C6th-C5th BC. Iron Age huts and ditches of the C3rd BC occur extensively to the North-East, and late Iron Age ritual enclosure was located containing a crouched inhumation. Pits of the early Roman period have been found beneath Building 11, a barn dated to ca 300 AD, and 6 agricultural buildings of the late C2nd to C3rd AD have been identified. Within one of these buildings was a deposit of complete coarse vessels, Samian vessels showing cut-glass technique and evidence of manufacturing shale objects. The latter included 7 benches which were apparently intended to create 3-legged stoals. The tripalite villa is dated from 270-370 AD and in the later period comprised two residences, perhaps, sharing common bathouse. This suggests the same kinship arrangement as at Halstock, Tarrant Hinton, and Woodhouse Hill (Studland). Excavations should be completed in 1991.<6-18> (A Durotrigian coin was found on the site (auth 10)) A total of 14 Romano-British inhumations have been found in the farm complex (auth 14). A Neolithic leaf-shaped arrowhead ca.40mm long by 15mm wide was found on the villa site. In possession of the finder, P Brown. (see p.170, of auth 2, PA Brown).

Record last edited

Oct 23 2023 2:13PM