Monument record 0551303000 - LAKE END ROAD WEST: Romano-British farmstead

Fieldwalking undertaken in 1991 highlighted that Roman finds appeared to be concentated to the east of the field (B4).
Excavation by Oxford Archaeological Unit in 1997 found a late Iron Age and early Romano-British site, consisting of ditched enclosures and at least one posthole structure, provisionally interpreted as a small farmstead. The pottery evidence suggests that the settlement enclosure was principally occupied during the 1st and early 2nd centuries AD. The limited range of forms and fabrics and small proportion of traded wares, suggests a low status settlement in an essentially native, late Iron Age tradition. A very small quantity of middle Iron Age pottery from the site is concentrated in the same area, suggesting that occupation on the site may have started in the middle Iron Age, but this material is mostly residual in later features and may derive from elsewhere. A series of seven regularly spaced, north-south aligned boundary ditches may represent a contemporary field system, although the ceramic evidence from ditches at the western end of the site suggests that the field system is probably of early Iron Age origin and that the lst-2nd
century AD settlement enclosure was superimposed on an existing boundary system. The very small quantity of later Roman pottery suggests that the site was on the periphery of settlement by the 3rd century AD (B9).