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The Excavation of two Romano-British Farm Sites in North Cumbria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

N. J. Higham  and
G. D. B. Jones
N. J. Higham
Affiliation:
Dept. of Extra-Mural Studies, University of Manchester
G. D. B. Jones
Affiliation:
Dept. of Archaeology, University of Manchester
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Abstract

In 1974 the authors began an aerial reconnaissance of the valleys and plain of North Cumbria, in an attempt to assess their potential for settlement site location. The drought that occurred in the summers of 1975 and 1976 enabled this programme to reap a rich and unexpected harvest. By the summer of 1975 a scatter of sites had been located, of which one of the more significant concentrations lay in the good farmland of the central Eden Valley, where a belt of Grade 2 agricultural land contained not only numerous farmsteads but also three Roman fort sites. Numerous crop-mark sites of enclosures and other features were located, particularly around the fort site at Brougham. Sites were located as parch-marks in pasture land, due to the unusual drought, as crop-marks in cereals and root crops, and further examples of shadow sites were also located on the more elevated areas. By these means it became possible to rectify the upland bias that had hitherto distorted concepts of ‘native’ settlement distribution in the Roman period, perhaps most obviously to be found in the Royal Commission for Ancient and Historical Monuments volume for Westmorland published in 1936. With this corpus of new evidence available it became highly desirable to excavate at least a single example from among the body of sites that had been discovered, and to establish as much as possible about the settlements and their occupants. An even larger body of evidence of settlement became available from the North Cumbrian plain where previously only a handful of sites had been located. It became possible to excavate farm sites from each zone in succeeding years (1976–1977), although factors leading to the selection of the two sites were different. Initially, an example was chosen close to Penrith for a trial excavation in 1975, run with the help of local volunteers. The evidence of plough damage which was produced as a result of this initial excavation led to the adoption of the project by the Department of the Environment, and it was with their backing that a more extensive programme was undertaken in the summer of 1976. In contrast the Silloth site was excavated at the instigation of the Department of the Environment prior to destruction of the site by the construction of a small estate of bungalows.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 14 , November 1983 , pp. 45 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © N. J. Higham and G. D. B. Jones 1983. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

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4 The authors would like to record their thanks to Mr W. E. Threlfell, the landowner, and his family, for permission to excavate, and to S. Urquhart, Sheila Smart, R. Bewley, P. Hudson, M. Huffthwaite, C. Vane, J. Watt, P. Martin, and many others for their help, especially the Berry and Bewley families.

5 The authors would like to record their thanks to R. Bewley, J. Manley, Barbara Manley, P. James, P. Hudson, J. Triscott, P. Reynolds, M. Huffthwaite, D. Mattingly, Ann Davies, Gwynne Moss, J. Denton, and many others for their help.

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7 Our thanks to Dr G. Gilmore who carried out neutron activation of this material, and to Dr J. H. Cleland and Dr Forbes who analysed it. Higham, N. J., ‘Two Enclosures at Dobcross Hall, Dalston’, Trans. Cumberland and Westmorland Arch, and Antiq. Soc. lxxxi (1981) 1–6.Google Scholar

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23 Our thanks to T. Clare of Cumbria C.C. for his personal communications.

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