More information : Crop marks of an elaborate settlement site, composed of a series of adjoining rectangular or squarish double ditched enclosures is visible at SE 755492. Two of the rectangular complexes appear to be linked by linear trackways. The settlement site is not on the same alignment as the adjacent Roman Road. Not visible on OS air photographs. Scheduled. (1-2)
The cropmarks of conjoined rectilinear enclosures recorded by Authority 1 are possibly those of a Roman villa complex. The possible nucleus of the settlement, a square enclosure, 60m by 60m internally, is more accurately located at SE 7554 4915; it is defined by 2 or 3 ditches which may have functioned as trackways. Adjoining rectilinear enclosures are more or less continuous over approximately half a kilometre north to south, between the modern road (A1079) and a beck. At SE 7576 4896 one corner of a triple ditched enclosure is visible on the north side of the beck. A second corner of the enclosure appears to be covered by trees or scrub, but this corner may already have been destroyed; 1940s vertical photographs show this field corner was subject to extraction, prior to its becoming woodland. Fragments of ditched trackways and rectilinear enclosures continue on the same alignment for approximately half a kilometre eastwards, although not seen continuously, at least as far as SE 7610 4918. Three long parallel ditched boundaries, 50-60m apart, also continue on this alignment on the north side of the modern road centred at SE 7620 4933. As the previous Authority remarked, these features are not aligned with, but lie at an angle to the alleged course of the Roman road (ie the modern A1079 west of Barmby Moor). If this settlement complex is continuous on both sides of the modern road, as seems probable, this might tend to cast doubt on the identification of this section of modern road as the true course for the Roman road. However, these settlement features are more or less square-on to a Roman road which has been positively identified as a cropmark. This lies one kilometre distant to the east (Linear 281, RR 80a) running due north-west from Barmby Moor. (3-4)
|