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MONUMENT NO. 346970

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A complex of enclosures and linear boundaries are visible as cropmarks in an area wher Roman building material, tile, tegula, tesserae and hypocaust fragments as well as Roman coins, Romano-British pottery and a kiln bar have previously been recovered.

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SP 906542. Evidence of a large Roman villa, building materials and sherds (2nd - 4th c), and definite evidence of hypocaust. Lines of walls in the ploughsoil can also be seen. A clay bar from an oven or kiln was found. (1)

SP 909541. RB sherds including Samian, building material tile and tesserae found March 1967 by W Britnell and in his possession. More RB sherds and a kiln bar found 29.4.67 by DC Mynard. Sent to (Aylesbury) Museum 5.4.68. (2)

SP 909541. Probable site of Roman building, materials found by W Britnell in roadworks and ploughing 1963. (3)

The following Ro coins were found in this field in recent years by Mr P Panter (Source 4) and are held by him (1) SP 908541 Carausius AD 291. (2) SP 909540 Gallienus AD 266. (3) SP 908541 Claudius AD 268-70.

SP 908541 Uncertain 4th c. Mr Panter also holds a selection of bronze work, fragments of wall plaster and part of puddingstone quern, all found in area SP 909540. (4-5)

(SP 9080 5412) ? rectangular outline visible on OS AP. (6)

Evidence of Ro building - probably a villa - found on ploughed surface of field at SP 9089 5409 (original grid reference by authority 1 mistaken). An extensive scatter of Ro tile (roof and box), brick, decayed wall plaster and RB pottery indicates the site but no indications of walls now visible on the surface. Insufficient AP evidence to plot outline of building. (6,7)

Listed in gazatteer of Roman Villas. (8)

Cropmark remains of a curvilinear enclosure and linear boundaries of probable Roman or Iron Age date are visible on aerial photographs centred at approximately SP 9086 5405, probably corresponding to the site and recovered material described by the above authorities. A linear boundary appears to overlap the curvilinear enclosure and extend north-east to form a possible rectilinear enclosure. The visible remains are confused by the presence of geological and agricultural cropmarks. A further two possible enclosures have been recorded immediately north-west at UID 346974. These features are visible on aerial photographs taken by English Heritage in 2006. (9)

Further English Heritage aerial reconnaissance in 2011 clarified the cropmarks in this area somewhat. The sequence remains complex, but there appears to be a series of conjoined enclosures, possibly at a point where at least two linear features meet. A linear ditch approaching from the east forms the northern side of the large sub-circular or sub-oval enclosure. Immediately north of this enclosure is a smaller sub-rectangular enclosure on a slightly different alignment, one side of which again appears to continue beyond (to the NW) as a linear into an area of fragments of straight and curving ditches close to the modern field boundary. Cutting across this area are two parallel ditches running roughly N-S which, at their southern end, turn east at c90 degress, in the process enclosing the area containing the two enclosures. There are many other connected and unconnected ditches within this area, some of them quite faint. Despite the many recorded finds of Roman objects and architectural fragments, there is nothing identifiable as a Villa site in the cropmarks, though presumably buildings are there somewhere. (10)

The enclosures and linear ditches visible as cropmarks were reviewed on a range of aerial photographs as part of the Bedford Borough NMP project. The cropmarks visible and mapped were as described in Sources 8 and 9. Part of the site was also excavated as part of the Lavendon By-Pass assessment in 1993 which identified settlement evidence from the Iron Age to the Roman period, though the Iron Age activity was only identified to the north of the cropmark complex and they suggest short distance occupation drift. No evidence of the villa location was identified. (11-12)

SOURCE TEXT

(1) Wolverton Archaeological Society journal

Britnell W, Mynard D C, Griffiths R W and Price L 1, 1968 Page(s)7

(2) Externally held archive reference

Roman Index (D C Mynard)

(3) Wolverton Historical Journal

Mynard D C 1970 Page(s)61

(4) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

(5) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

(6) Vertical aerial photograph reference number

OS/73465 135-155 15-OCT-1973

(7) Field Investigators Comments

F1 PAS 16-JAN-1976

(8) by Eleanor Scott 1993 A gazetteer of Roman villas in Britain

Leicester archaeology monographsNo.1 (1993) - BU 53 no.1 Page(s)29

(9) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR SP 9054/17 NMR 24352/4 14-JUL-2006

(10) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR 27049_030-042 29-JUN-2011

(11) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR 27049/31 29-JUN-2011

(12) Buckinghamshire County Museum Archaeological Service [assessment & evaluation reports]

Anon. 1993. A428 LAVENDON BY-PASS, Archaeological Assessment Stage 4. Page(s)30-31

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MONUMENT NO. 346974
LAVENDON

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A probable Iron Age sub-rectangular enclosure with small internal near-square enclosure is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs taken in 2006 an...

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