A Romano-British Waster Heap at Allen's Farm, Rockbourne
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Proc. Hampsh. Field Club Arckaeol. Soc. 39, 1983, 69-75 69 A ROMANO-BRITISH WASTER HEAP AT ALLEN'S FARM, ROCKBOURNE By TONY LIGHT With contributions by Jennifer Price and David Algar ABSTRACT A large quantity of New Forest type waster pottery mile upstream and the late third and fourth was extracted from spoil produced by the digging of a century pottery kilns within the New Forest are fish pond, and subsequent excavation revealed that some four miles to the east. A narrow belt of the sherds had formed part of the fill of a U-shaped alluvium and valley gravel overlays red-streaked ditch. To the south-west this ended at an area of compacted gravel which extended beyond the limits of clays of the Reading Beds. the excavation. The location of the kiln or kilns is uncertain but a possible site was suggested by geo THE EXCAVATIONS physical survey. Detailed pottery and finds reports are presented in The following excavation notes have been the microfiche section, 31—45. largely composed from records obtained from Mr Ingrams' widow, Mrs Joyce Ingrams. Trench A (Fig 2), a U-shaped ditch 180 cm INTRODUCTION wide and 75 cm deep (Fig 3) ran from south In 1974 Mr and Mrs Read, the then owners of west to north-east towards the stream, having Allen's Farm, noted large quantities of sherds in originally continued through the trout pond the spoil heaps produced during excavation of a where it's section was clearly visible at the pond at their trout fishery. The late Mr Selwyn south-west edge. On the opposite bank, at a Ingrams undertook to recover as much as distance of five metres the feature - was less possible from the spoil and subsequently began distinct and considerably shallower. a small excavation in order to determine the The fine, dark grey primary silting of the nature of the deposits. This was continued ditch was about twenty cm deep and contained during the following summer with the help of sherds from three vessels of which two were members of the Avon Valley Archaeological large storage jars. One was of typical New Society. Forest fabric with the other being Wessex grog- It was immediately apparent that many of the tempered ware. The third vessel was a New sherds were wasters of typical New Forest types, Forest bowl, (Fulford form 82) without overall suggesting the probability of a kiln.group in the red slip but with two- internal horizontal bands vicinity..A geophysical survey failed to produce of red painted wavy line decoration. (Fig 10, positive results although a weak reading indi 208) Above this layer a wedge of brown silt with cated a possible kiln about 30 metres to the a high humus content up to ten centimetres deep south-west of the excavated area. at the north-western edge faded away towards the centre of the ditch. There was now a deliberate filling of the LOCATION (Fig 1) remaining ditch with a ridge of gravel up to 35 The site is located on the western bank of a cms high along the centre followed by two tributary of. the River Avon known as Sweat- separate deposits of gravelly earth, both con fords Water, mid-way between Rockbourne and taining large quantities of New Forest waster Fordingbridge at Allen's Farm (SU 132160). sherds. These layers were clearly also the source The large villa at West Park, Rockbourne is one of the pottery discovered some two metres to the 70 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY A Downton Villa Kilns • • N i ALLEN'S -***=«%>^?.Q™ENCH -: \ FARM _^' ~°*»~Ai?£''B 6INS- IMILE 1 ft <L * ••. I1 0 '*. Fordin«bridEe Figl. Location map of excavation site at Allen's Farm and details of other Roman sites and finds in adjacent areas of Hampshire. A LIGHT: A ROMANO-BRITISH WASTER HEAP AT ROCKBOURNE 71 TRENCH A GRAVELLY EARTH GRAVEL OVER SUB-SOIL SUB-SOIL e B * O 9 ,qOMR\CTE6; .• • ° • » . ' GP&XVEL • • I METRE 0 ff ¥ O • o Fig 2. Allen's Farm: plan of Trench A. north-east during excavation of the pond. Mixed pacted gravel surface 125cm in width and at with the sherds were several patches of a fine least six metres in length, running from north blue-grey clay. west to south-east. From the tread above this a During the initial investigations ten coins of coin of Valens (AD 367-3/5) was recovered. second century date were found in the spoil Trench B This was three metres square at a heaps and a further eight were recovered from distance of ten metres to the north of trench A. the upper level of ditch fill in the course of Gravel subsoil appeared approximately 30cm excavation, together with an unstratified below the surface and contained no features of antoninianus of Gallienus (AD 253-268). significance. The area had a thin scatter of both Adjoining the ditch on the south-east a coarse and fine wares in a brown alluvial soil. circular depression 80 cm in diameter and 20 cm deep at the centre contained black earth with many sherds and a coin of Constans (AD 346— THE FINDS 350). Summaries of the finds reports are presented To the south-west the ditch ended at a com below with the full details included in microfiche. 72 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY W *% \ .* DARK BROWN SILTY *' „'" «r BROWN SILT ill ii' ill * • t * EARTH.SOME GRAVEL GRAVEL o GREY-BROWN SILT GREY-BLACK SILTY o EARTH.SOME GRAVEL o o o 50 100 CMS Fig. 3 Allen's Farm: section through ditch in Trench A. The Pottery (Figs 6-12) Sherds from a minimum of 1,800 vessels were Eleven, including an Antoninianus of Gallienus, recovered with a wide variety of fine and coarse were unstratified with a further nine coming ware forms represented. A small quantity of from the upper fill of the ditch and adjacent parchment ware was present but imitation depression. An AE 3 of Valens was recovered samian forms were entirely absent. A notable from the adjoining gravel surface. The earlier feature of the majority of the vessels was their coins were mostly very worn with the inscrip relatively small size. The estimated quantities of tions being largely illegible. each form are shown in Figs 4 and 5. DISCUSSION The Glass by Jennifer Price A single tubular-rim fragment of a bluish- Whilst precise dating of the products is not as green glass bowl or plate was recovered from the yet possible, on present evidence the range of ditch fill. This type of vessel was produced vessels suggests that the Allen's Farm kiln was throughout the Roman period however and operating during the first few decades of the cannot be closely dated. New Forest industry, perhaps, early in the last quarter of the third century AD. In sequence it The Coins by David Algar may well be pre-dated only by the Lower Sloden The 21 coins discovered are listed with kilns (Swan 1966), many of the same decorative eighteen being from the second century or earlier. motifs being found at both sites eg rouletting, A LIGHT:.A ROMANO-BRITISH WASTER HEAP AT ROCKBOURNE 73 COARSE NUMBER OF FINE WARE VESSELS WARE IOD Numnv VESSELS lilll iLiio 41 44|45 41 Si SI i! II FLASKS SI SI II <T ID II IT ID IS] 33 40 44 F LAWNS t I IS II 111 I l3D 37 I *- , SFIALIBOVLS j^WURERSN CRUCIBLES J ANIMAL OUT-BENT RIM DECORATION OUT-BENT RIM * ' .+ * 1 STABBING TAR 'RILLED' 'DRA&1I' OUT-BENDUT-BENTRIT RIM BOWL (OWL Fig 4. Allen's Farm: histogram showing the esti Fig 5. Allen's Farm: histogram- showing the esti mated numbers of fine ware vessels of each form. mated numbers of coarse ware vessels of each form. rustication and incised concentric circles with By contrast at Chichester (Down 1978) a white paint decoration. number of New Forest beakers with rouletting The largest stratified deposits of New Forest were obtained from pit groups securely dated to pottery are from Portchester (Fulford 1976) and the period AD 260/270-300. A large group from although the earliest groups from there are for the Barton Field Villa at Tarrant Hinton, the period AD 280-290 there are no large Dorset is similarly dated on coin evidence and assemblages before AD 300. In deposits dating contains both rouletted and rusticated beakers. from before AD 325 however incised concentric On present evidence therefore rouletting circles with and without white paint decoration would seem to be one of the most important were common whilst there is a notable absence indications of the relative dating of early of rouletted wares from the whole sequence,. material. 74 HAMPSHIRE. FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY CONCLUSIONS It is probable that one or more New Forest concentric circle beakers in the collection are type kilns existed within a short distance of the largely from kilns which were being fired at a excavated area and on the information available considerably higher temperature. There is thus a likely date for the forms represented in the no evidence to suggest that the Allen's Farm waster heap is early in die last quarter of the third potter had a greater degree of access to the villa century. The coin evidence also suggests a market than his contemporaries within the relatively early date, the eighteen from the main Forest. sherd deposit having a range of at least Hadrian The raw blue/grey clay mixed in with the (AD 117-138) to Commodus (AD 177-192).