Monument record 0165100000 - COWPASTURE FARM

Evidence of Romano-Briitsh occupation was first deteted in the field to the east of the site in 1967 through the finding of tegula and sherds of weathered pottery. In 1968, a large scatter of Roman-British building materials were revealed in this field after ploughing. In 1973, some 20 trail trenches were dug by hand - 1m wide and varying in length from 1.5m to 11m long - comprising some 1332 square metres. The findings from the 20 trenches were interpreted as a 'corridor type' villa built around a cobbled courtyard. The pottery and coins finds seem to suggest it was occupied early C2-late C4th century. The building appears to have had at least 2 tesselated floors which had been ripped up as no tessera were found in-situ. There were two main types - one of cut stone and the other of broken roof tile cut into squares. Traces of mortars were found suggesting that the floor had been laid on Opus-Sig. Trench G2 produced several conglomerated of fine red, white and black tessara laid on Opus-Sig. Trench F produced tegualr and imbrex sealing the footing trench of a narrow internal wall, which in turn was sealed by rubble from a nearby wider wall. To the north of this wall there was a section of cobbled pathway running E-W. Tiles from this trench bore footprints of dogs and other animals, and included hypocaust and box flu tiles. Some wall plaster decorated with green, red and white lines was also recovered (B1).