A ROMAN STORY

written from recall of Dr. Stephen Young's BHS Talk, November 26th 2010

Area of study for the CLASP group is a triangle formed with its corners at (i). Whilton/Norton  (ii). Duston  and (iii). Towcester.  The roads defining the sides of the triangle are, the Watling Street, the "Nobottle Road" and a track identified in more recent than Roman times as The Kingsway from Towcester "north bridge" through Tiffield and Gayton Wilds, through the west-back of Gayton and via straight sections to Kislingbury, over the Nene Bridge at Kislingbury and thence joining the Nobottle Road.

There was probably another road, near parallel with the last named, from Towcester that links up the Hunsbury settlement, branching at a point just north of Tiffield and passing by the temple/villa that was situated at the highest point on Gayton Hill.  There are other significant Roman roads too numerous to mention here.

Blisworth parish is near, but outside, the south-east part of this triangle.  Thanks to metal-detectorists working on Wakelin's land, two settlement sites have been found in Tiffield parish, one farmstead site in Gayton parish and one maybe interesting site at Blisworth near to what was Glebe Farm.  The latter is possibly confused by quarrying disturbances.  Earlier sites found at Blisworth is one, found in 1866, beside the main 19th century limestone quarry (now filled with refuse backfill and covered) and one, found in 1841, very near the Gayton parish boundary that is now obliterated by the A43 bypass works.  It is thought there must have been more settlements and it is conceded that somewhere in the village itself there must be at least one settlement site, the ironstone bluff area being a distinct possibility.  Another settlement that may turn out to be significant is that near Nunn Wood in Easton Neston parish.  Note the overview article on the website: Roman Finds.

A major site is Whitehall near Nether Heyford from which much local knowledge has accumulated to CLASP.   The intention is to eventually cover 30 parishes with the expectation of working nearly 500 settlement sites.  Perhaps we should be patient for it may be years before CLASP groups, consisting only of volunteers and unpaid specialists, could be mustered in Blisworth parish, which has the unfortunate feature of many fields radically disturbed for ironstone.

So far the general conclusions are as follows, for all sites that have yielded data.  

1.  a site is occupied continuously from 50AD to 350AD (numbers display spurious precision but refer to centuries) and this is shown by coin losses and by pottery sherds.

2.  early occupation indicates modest settlements, using pre-Roman building design, but by 200AD there are established sites with larger houses, clearly of Roman style, with 50 to 150 rooms.  A settlement would be defined by a perimeter earth bank (topped by wattles?) and within the enclosure there can be discerned paddocks and stock management folds.  There is sometimes evidence of the obliteration of earlier boundaries to modest field.  The population there probably consisted of one or two extended families working together.  There is no DNA from grave remains yet but one suspects that inward investment, from Europe, may have triggered the change.  By 300 - 400AD there are signs that the settlement may have become run down and relatively disused.  This change is indicated through the lifetime, demolition and replacement of buildings.

3.  Heavy clay land and intermediate land carry typical density of settlements (1 in each 2 sq. km.) whilst gravel-based land carries a greater number by nearly a factor of two.  A farmer would supply the reason for this - gravel based land is ideal for stock such as a mix of oxen and sheep while other land would suit best beet and corn crops.  All land types were used for establishing a discernable settlement (ie. buildings) except for alluvial land where there was a danger of flooding.  Presumably the value of pseudo-watermeadow land would have been appreciated by the Romans but there would be no remaining evidence of their use of them owing to flooding.

4.  Pottery and glass was imported from an amazingly wide base from 200AD onwards.  On a site one can discern 20 or 30 different types of pottery (that covers a usage span of 250 years) and this points to the effective distribution of many small suppliers.  Glass that is cloudy yet fabricated by either flat spinning or cutting a blown cylinder was imported for houses in the mid-Roman period, evidently a rarity and so assumed very expensive.

5.  In some places there is evidence of Roman-like occupation of sites through to 550AD using architecture not dissimilar to Roman.  These people eventual could call themselves English!  Saxon settlements are recognised from 650AD onwards and it is notable that some Romanesque aspects of their architecture, eg. Blixworth Saxon Church, can be recognised.

Tony Marsh