More information : (Area centred SU 56914548) In a field near the Wheat Sheaf Inn extensive foundations of a Roman building, no doubt a villa, were discovered some time ago; they have been destroyed.
Objects found include:-
A small bull's head of mixed metal of the colour of gun metal.
A perfect bow-shaped fibula of very plain workmanship.
Portion of a bronze armilla.
Several coins, including two of silver, one of the Scribonian family, the other of Valentinian. (1)
Finds in Basingstoke Museum include tiles, tesserae, a fragment of imported mottled green marble, fragments of a mortarium (c.80-120 A.D.), reed rim (70-140), 2nd Cent. Samian, Castor, prob. 3rd cent. mortarium, pseudo-samian, redware flanged pie-dish and a late mortarium. (Although he recognises its position as half way between Winchester and Silchester and suggests that it may have served as a road house and market, Applebaum still calls it a villa: there is no good evidence for this - ? Mansio). (2)
(SU 56914548) No Roman debris was noted in the area of the Wheat Sheaf. The proprietor of the inn had been told that when the petrol pumps were erected at 'A', c.1928, Roman tiles and coins were found. Roman material from the site was seen in the Willis Museum, Basingstoke. (3)
"..... the site at the Wheatsheaf, both from its finds and its position (midway between Winchester and Silchester, on the borders of the Belgae and the Atrebates) is as likely to be that of a temple or a road station as of a villa". (4)
The fields around the Wheatsheaf cross roads are under growing crops and nothing of significance was noted. (5)
HA 65 Listed as the probable site of a villa. (6) |