Bourton-on-the-Water 377 Site No: 1018 I Date of Recog: 1914-18 I Site Name: Lower City Mus I Description: RB pottery found under a house Slaughter I Periods Rep: RB I Finds Location: Cheltenham extension at the NW end of the village./ Sources: RCHME Mus G.1921:259 I Description: Male inhumation, with 1976, Wyck Rissington, 135a. hobnailed footwear, Jound in stone coffin, on hill-slope close to Buckle Street. I Sources: Buxton 1921, 340-1; RCHME 1976, Lower Slaughter, 78b; Glos SMR 6859. UNRECORDED STRAY FINDS (SITE TYPE: USF) Site No: 1019 I NGR: SP 163227 A I Site Name: Lower Site No: 1025 I Date of Recog: 1769 I Site Name: Lower Slaughter I Periods Rep: RB I Finds Location: Royce Slaughter I Periods Rep: RB I Finds Location: Gloucester Collection, Bristol City Mus I Description: Pit containing 2 City Mus I Description: Votive relief portraying Minerva iron knives, Roman pottery (C4 rosette-stamped pot) from estate of General Whitmore, almost certainly the uncovered in a gravel pit, N of the R Dikler. Nearby short Chessels. I Sources: Camden's Britannia (ed Cough, 1806), length of wall, possibly contemporary. I Sources: Rhodes II, pl 17, fig 3 op. p 344; O'Neil and Toynbee 1958, 55; 1964, 12, no 2; RCHME 1976, Lower Slaughter, 79b; Glos RCHME 1976, Lower Slaughter (1); Henig 1993, 88, pl24. SMR2627. Site No: 1026 I Date of ).\.ecog: 1895 I Site Name: Lower Site No: 1020 I Date of Recog: 1960-4 I NGR: SP 174194 A Slaughter I Periods Rep: RB I Finds Location: Cheltenham I Periods Rep: RB I Description: Settlement suggested. Mus P 1937.187. I Description: RB lamp found at Lower Observation and limited excavation, sporadic during Slaughter. I Sources: RCHME MS Notes. period of gravel extraction, undertaken by H O'Neil at Tweenbrooks marking the confluence of the rivers Site No: 1027 I NGR: SP 1622 A I Site Name: Lower Windrush and Dikler. Five areas examined with remains of Slaughter village I Periods Rep: RB I Finds Location: gullies and ditches with scattered stones and finds. Area 1: Royce Collection I Description: Coin of Constantine I, AD stone rubble wall foundations, tile, oyster shells, pot, 335-7. I Sources: Rhodes 1964, 12, no 1. painted plaster, tesserae, stone channel. Area 2: drainage Site No: 1028 I NGR: SP 164235 (?) I Site Name: Upper ditch and associated gullies, with black silt, decayed wood Slaughter I Periods Rep: IA-RB I Finds Location: Royce and pot infill. Area 3: rectangular area defined by shallow Collection I Description: A variety of finds, from Copse trench, with areas of pitched stone footings suggesting Hill: coins of Constantine I and II; stone spindle whorl; Iron building outlines, with associated paved stone channels. Age pottery; bone comb, and bone 'points'. I Sources: Area 4: series of superimposed gullies. Area 5: shallow oval Rhodes 1964, 12, no 3; RCHME 1976, Upper Slaughter, 123a. well, set within a square enclosure, with gullies sloping towards it. Finds included pottery, 2 copper-alloy fish Site No: 1029 I NGR: SP 163227 A I Site Name: Lower hooks and an iron gaff. I Sources: Dunning 1932, 286-93; Slaughter I Periods Rep: RB I Description: Roman pottery O'Neil1961, 29; 1977, 28-30; RCHME 1976, Bourton-on-the­ was exposed when a trench was cut across the field. I Water (4). Sources: Glos SMR 6671. Site No: 1021 I NGR: SP 163234 I Site Name: Upper Site No: 1030 I NGR: SP 1584 2255 I Site Name: Spring Hill, Slaughter I Description: A contracted burial found in a Lower Slaughter I Periods Rep: RB I Description: Finds circular stone-cut pit SW of Copse Hill. I Sources: Royce recorded comprise C4 pottery and building debris. I 1883, 77-80; RCHME 1976, Upper Slaughter, 123a. Sources: RCHME 1976, Lower Slaughter (3); Glos SMR 2626. Site No: 1022 I Date ofRecog: 1985 I NGR: SP 173232 I Site Name: Lower Slaughter I Periods Rep: RB I Finds Site No: 1031 I Date of Recog: pre-1881 I Site Name: The Location: Corinium Mus 1989/74/1-3 I Description: Finds Chestles, Lower Slaughter I Periods Rep: RB I Description: recorded from Thames Water Pipeline by B and B Rawes Moore records the discovery of 'c 1500 minimi found in the include pottery and a coin of Valens (364-78). I Sources: Chestles at Lower Slaughter, in an earthen pot which Corinium Museum. also contained a silver coin of Valens and a 3rd brass of Decentius'. I Sources: Royce 1882-3, 72; Dr J Moore, Notebook, July 1884, 23-4, GRO; O'Neil 1934, 133-9; Glos SMR346. RECORDED STRAY FINDS (SITE TYPE: RSF) Site No: 1032 I Site Name: Lower Slaughter I Periods Rep: Site No: 1023 I NGR: SP 1710 2215 A I Site Name: Lower RB I Finds Location: Gloucester City Mus I Description: Slaughter I Periods Rep: AS I Description: Silver penny of Roman pottery and ironwork, found by P E Gascoigne I King Egbert (AD 802-39) recovered from Slaughter Brook Sources: Gloucester City Museum Report 1968-70. during bridge work. I Sources: Glos SMR 6672; BGAS Excavation and Building Committee Minute Book, 1947-63, WATCHING BRIEF (SITE TYPE: WB) 149. Site No: 1024 I NGR: SP 1878 2181 I Site Name: Wyck Site No: 1033 I Date of Recog: 1989 I NGR: SP 1555 2327 I Rissington I Periods Rep: RB I Finds Location: Gloucester Site Name: Castle Mound, Upper Slaughter I Periods Rep: 378 Excavations at Kingscote and Wycomb, Gloucestershire RB I Description: Construction work at Home Farm James 1988). The building, originally c 24m by 6.8m revealed the ditch around the W side of the motte. An and divided into six rooms, was apparently unstratified La Tene Ill brooch of Claudio-Neronian date constructed in the first century AD. After various was found. I Sources: Wills 1989, 198. modifications, including the addition of a cellar and two wings, it was demolished and abandoned in the third century (Trow and James 1988, 84). Post­ conquest occupation is also attested at Bagendon BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER: (Clifford 1961; Trow and James 1988, 85). Occupation GENERAL DISCUSSION immediately outside the Salmonsbury defences also shows both Iron Age and Roman activity (Dunning Location 1976, 113). The presence of Iron Age occupation Bourton-on-the-Water is located on a major Roman immediately beyond the defences is perhaps a little routeway, the Fosse Way linking Cirencester to unusual, and might argue that Salmonsbury did not Leicester, at a point where it meets two other roads, have an important defensive role at this time. Indeed Buckle Street and Ryknild Street and where it crosses the earthworks may have been fulfilling a completely the River Windrush (Fig 141). This places the settle­ different role. It has been suggested that Salmonsbury ment in an important nodal point in the Roman should be classified as an oppidum (Millett 1990, 25, communications system. Lying approximately mid­ fig 6). Evidence to date does not place it into the same way between Cirencester and the defended Roman class as the large oppida from south-east England, settlement at Dorn, it has been seen as an ideal nor has it produced evidence of a mint, or pre­ location for a posting station, and enigmatic remains conquest trade in exotic goods comparable to found near Bourton Bridge have been interpreted as Bagendon. On the other hand there are a small such a building (O'Neil1968). number of post-conquest but pre-Flavian imported Water supply would have been plentiful, for, in finewares, for example, samian, Lyons ware and addition to the adjacent rivers, at least five, possibly Central Gaulish colour-coat. Such wares would six, wells have been encountered within the settle­ typically be associated with a military presence ment area. Other raw materials such as stone were perhaps not out of place within an Iron Age centre. locally available and gravel could be obtained from Further work will undoubtedly change our under­ underlying deposits. standing. Whatever its status, it was undoubtedly an important local centre in the Iron Age. Settlement focused around Bourton Bridge could Origins and development be attributable to a number of possible factors: the Present evidence suggests that the Roman settlement presence of an official or higher-status building at this is concentrated in two areas; around Bourton Bridge point, pre-Roman occupation close to the river, or the and the Lansdown district, and at Salmonsbury road junction for routes north and south. Material Camp (Fig 142a, b), although this may in part be a recovered from the earliest features in the adjacent reflection of the archaeological record. Traces of field suggest that settlement was already established further settlement have been identified from the here by the late first/ early second century. There may immediate neighbourhood at Spring Hill and Santhill have been a period of temporary abandonment in (S1003, S1006). Finds of apparent Iron Age date from areas immediately adjacent to the river in the later Copse Hill may suggest another smaller settlement second and third centuries, but the area was certainly on higher ground (S1028). The use of the latter area reoccupied in the fourth century. Odd finds of Saxon for burial in the Iron Age and Roman periods might pottery from Lansdown suggest continued use into indicate Roman occupation is also to be found nearby. the sub-Roman period. Saxon occupation has also The origins of the Roman settlement appear to been attested to the immediate north of Salmonsbury stem from the large bivallate Iron Age fortification at at Slaughter Bridge (Dunning 1932).