More information : About 100 yards to the E of Maiden Castle Roman forlet (NY 81 SE 2) are some ruined stone enclosures, mostly about 30 ft by 20 ft, some of them roughly rectangular, which may be part of a village. (1)
About four enclosures are recognisable to the immediate SE of Maiden Castle, constructed of slight earthen banks studded with boulders. The age of these features is uncertain, but from appearances they seem unlikely to constitute part of any vicus. Surveyed at 1:10000.
(2)
Surveyed at 1:500 (roughed out, unpenned drawing (undated) is in the NMR archive). (3)
This complex of irregular enclosures at NY 8726 1308 were examined in January 1992 by RCHME Newcastle as a part of the Maiden Castle Survey ; Farrar's 1:500 plan was revised in the field. A fair-drawn plan and a full account of the Roman fortlet and adjacent features were prepared for the NMR and publication.
The enclosures, on a gentle SW-facing slope, are bounded by lines of boulders and low stony banks, on average 0.3 m high, which resemble prehistoric walls in the quality of construction. Most of the enclosures appear to be small cultivation plots, but the exception is the most westerly, measuring about 27 m by 10 m, which is uneven inside and may have been a stock pen. A smaller adjoining enclosure could have been a building, as could another 15 m to the SSW; however the soil depth and the presence of abraded Roman potsherds and fragments of coal, possibly rubbish from the fortlet, may point to a horticultural origin. Three small platforms in a natural scarp immediately below and to the W of these enclosures seem to have been deliberately cleared of stone which was then dumped onto their forward scarps. Some of these features are presumably related to the settlement at the root of the slope partly excavated ahead of road construction in 1976-7 and 1985 (4a) (see NY 81 SE 2). This settlement was in existence through the time-span of the fortlet; the artifacts found suggest occupation from about the late 1st or early 2nd century until the late 4th or early 5th century. (4)
|