| Summary : Earthwork remains of a Roman settlement, terracing and building platforms, lead workings and an Iron Age/Romano-British field system are visible on aerial photographs. Excavations have uncovered building remains dated to circa AD 300 to circa AD 399 and inhumations. The site has been interpreted as a possible Roman villa and as the site of the Saxon monastery granted by King Alfred to Asser in 888. This site was mapped as part of the Mendip Hills National Mapping Programme. The site comprises at least four building platforms, a possible trackway, three lynchets which define circa five cultivation terraces, three probable extractive pits and four linear spoil heaps. |
More information : [ST 39745846] Roman Building [GS] (Site of) (1)
At Winthill, Banwell, in fields named Chapel Close and Leaze, building foundations, inhumation burials including one in a stone coffin, Roman coins and Roman and Md. artefacts, recorded from the later 18th c. onwards (2). The fields and adjacent area are covered with lynchets and enclosure banks. The site was partially excavated by the Axbridge C.G. & A.S. from 1954-6, revealing numbers of post-Roman inhumation-burials of both sexes, including children, oriented E - W; also the disturbed foundations of a Roman building. Finds included mid- 4th c. Roman coins and a rare inscribed 4th c. Rhenish glass bowl. After the latter had been sold to the Ashmolean Museum the owner stopped further excavation. [The building is called a villa by many authorities but there is no evidence to substantiate this identification.] The site is traditionally associated with the battle between Saxons and Danes, and as the supposed site of a DA monastery. A silver IA coin, recorded from Banwell, may have come from this site. The finds are in private collections, Axbridge and other local museums. (2-4)
The excavations by the Axbridge C.G. and A.S. and subsequent excavations by the Banwell Arch.Soc. in 1963-4 took place near the O.S. siting symbol and at ST 39815847, where the burials were found. These are said by Rahtz to be medieval since green glaze was found at the bedrock surface. The site is a south facing slope that has been terraced. The terraces in the vicinity of the excavation are small and their surfaces uneven but no intelligible building plan can be identified. The modern hedges to the south and east are on pronounced lynchets which are probably the remains of an earlier field system. Dating evidence is provided by sherds of Belgic pottery - dated AD 40-80 by P.A. Rahtz - found in a badger sett in the face of a lynchet at ST 39935846. Roman objects have also been found over much of the area. In particular Roman pottery and coins were found when constructing a bungalow at ST 39785827 and removing a field bank at ST 39715835 c. 1957. Pottery and a fragment of possible Roman walling were found at ST 39945806 in 1964. Finds are with Axbridge C.G. and A.S. and the Banwell A.S., and some are on loan to Weston-super-Mare Museum. (5)
Excavations in 1966/7 revealed that the building first discovered in 1964 had been started about AD.300 and had been abandoned within a century. A small fragment of glass probably dating from the Dark Ages and a hoard of 30 silver-dipped 3rd century bronze coins were the most notable finds. A room uncovered during the excavation proved to be not of high quality construction and could have been part of the servants' quarters, perhaps a kitchen or a slaughter house. The width of the opening in its north wall suggested it was closed by some such obstacle as a hurdle rather than a door. (6)
An early Christian graveyard was cut into the foundations of a Roman villa on Wint Hill. (7-8)
Pearce (8) notes that a monastery at Banwell existed at about 880, the estate having a later history compatible with the existence of a pre-Saxon religious house. The coin hoard of 30 antoniniani, from Gallienus to Diocletian, was found on the pathway beside the Roman building (9).
ST 397 585: Excavation of Romano-British site at Winthill 1959-60 full report. (10)
Excavations 1961-2. (11)
Excavations 1964-6. (12)
Excavations 1967. (13)
C4 glass bowl - additional references. (14-15)
AV 4 Listed as a possible villa site. (16)
Earthwork remains of a Roman settlement consisting of a centrally placed structure, 10m square, terracing and building platforms. There are also remains of a late Iron Age/Romano-British field system. A large linear quarry or lead rake together with evidence for metal smelting indicates that industrial activity was important and may have been the main function of this settlement. Burials from the site have been variously described as Roman and Medieval. In view of the strong Roman connections for the settlement, these features are more likely to be Roman. (17)
A Roman settlement and a Roman or Iron Age field system are visibleble as earthworks on aerial photographs. The site is centred on ST 3974 5846 and extends over an area which covers 225 metres east-west and 173 metres north-south. The site comprises at least four building platforms, a possible trackway, three lynchets which define circa five cultivation terraces, three probable extractive pits and four linear spoil heaps.
The central area of the settlement contains three building platforms of various sizes ranging from 45 metres long by 17 metres wide to 15 metres long by 11 metres wide. The earthworks of the central area of the settlement are likely to have been significantly disturbed by excavation. A possible trackway extends towards the largest building platform. This is defined by a section of bank which measures 28 metres long and 4 metres wide, and is oriented NNE-SSW. The fourth building platform is located in the north eastern corner of the site, and measures 31 metres by 21 metres. The central area of the settlement is separated from its associated field system by a north-south oriented scarp.
The three lynchets of the field system measure between 63 and 110 metres long, and define approximately five cultivation terraces which measure between 14 and 28 metres in width and up to 80 metres long.
The extractive pits are likely to have been for lead extraction, and are located against the hedgerows to the west and south of the main settlement area. Two of the pits are sub circular in shape and measure 10 metres in diameter, while the other is amorphous in shape and measures circa 15 metres long by 10 metres wide. Three of the four linear spoil heaps are adjacent to the extractive pits (19-20).
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