More information : SU 510977 Excavations in 1972/73 at Barton Court Farm uncovered the south-west portion of a ditched enclosure of the 1st century BC, with associated Iron Age "A" pottery, domestic articles, pits, post-holes and burials suggesting the existence of a settlement. Overlying this was a later Iron Age enclosure with early 1st century AD pottery and some Romanized fabrics. A series of paddocks connected with a palisaded enclosure which was associated with a stone building of the 3rd and 4th centuries standing within it, approached via a narrow entrance flanked by two six-post structures. The villa was bipartite, having a corridor on the east side ending in a room, together with a range of at least five rooms west of this. At a later date a cellar with a tessellated floor had been added at the north end. Finds of this period included Constantinian coins, painted wall plaster, tesserae and tiles. In the rubble covering the building lay two Saxon burials, one of a man with an iron dagger, and 30 metres to the west was a Saxon grubenhaus. On the western edge of the site was a Medieval boundary ditch in which a silver coin of Henry VIII was found. Continued excavations in 1974-6 revealed a Roman smithy building in which was found a scattered hoard of Theodosian coins and two Saxon burials. To the east was a stone lined Roman well. Six grubenhaus and traces of timber structures were found inside the Roman paddocks; spindle whorls, bone pins and loom weights were in association. One had 14 lead loom weights lying on the gravel floor and a fine bucket urn. A wicker lined Saxon well was cut into the base of one of the Romano-British ditches. A number of earlier prehistoric features were noted including a Neolithic pit. (1-7)
Plan of the various phases at Barton Court Farm and description of 1972-76 excavations. (8)
Listed by Lambrick. (9)
OX 45 Listed as the site of a Roman villa. (10)
Cropmark remains of a multi-period settlement site located at SU5096 9780, close to Barton Court Farm. The site has been excavated and found to be the remains of at least four phases of occupation. The earliest phase identifiable as a cropmark is that which dates from the 1st century BC - 1st century AD, visible as a sub-rectangular ditched enclosure 65m x 70m aligned NW-SE. The excavations identified several phases of Roman occupation with a villa and associated buildings within a rectanglar ditched compound 125m x 145m aligned NNW-SSE. The compound and fragments of internal enclosures and building foundations were visible as cropmarks, but it was difficult to identify individual phases. Associated with the enclosure is a length of trackway leading from the north-eastern corner and fragments of possible field boundaries running out from the compund wall. It was not possible to locate other than fragments of other features. The site was mapped at 1:10,000 scale as part of the RCHME:Thames Valley NMP project. (Morph No. TG. 351.34, 35 and 36) (11) |