Romano-British settlement south of Willington

Summary

An Iron Age/Romano-British linear settlement including a probable Roman villa and associated Roman road, set within a wider, multi-phase landscape of settlement and agricultural activity. The remains are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs.

Reasons for Designation

The Iron Age and Romano-British settlement remains, south of Willington, are scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Period: the Willington linear settlement is of particular significance as a transitional site which does not appear to have had an extensive later period of occupation. This will allow us a greater understanding of the earliest phases of Roman settlement;
* Period: the presence of a probable Roman villa highlights the potential for greater understanding of the romanisation of native communities following the period of the Roman occupation of Britain;
* Survival: the extent and nature of the cropmarks show that the underlying deposits are likely to survive well across the area;
* Potential: the site remains unexcavated and unencumbered by later development and so has a high potential to add to the knowledge and understanding of the development of settlements in Roman Britain;
* Diversity: the site contains evidence of domestic, commercial and other structures, as well as details of the social and economic life of the settlement, and can contribute to our understanding of late Iron Age and Romano-British life.

History

Rural Romano-British settlements were diverse in plan-form, but routeways played an important role in their morphology. ‘Ladder systems’ and linear villages were extended complexes of settlement enclosures, paddocks and fields, often focussed on Roman roads. Here the domestic and subsidiary structures could be of traditional ‘roundhouse type’, or rectilinear structures implying ‘Roman influence’, or combinations of the two. Such sites probably drew their existence both from rural activities such as farming, but also acted as local foci for trade, where possible, exploiting their location on the road.

Villas are distinguished from other rural settlements by the degree of adoption of ‘Roman’ traits, with rectilinear buildings forming the bulk of the structures, although ovoid and circular structures can be incorporated. Basic plan forms for the main structures include cottage house, winged corridor, courtyard and aisled houses. The largest sites can incorporate multiple courtyards, often distinguished as ‘domestic’ and ‘agricultural’, although apparently domestic structures can appear in the lesser courtyard.

The Romano-British settlement and possible villa to the south of the present settlement of Willington sit alongside an unnamed Roman road running towards the Roman settlement at Sandy. It was first identified on aerial photographs in the 1950s. Subsequent interpretations of aerial photography, most notably through aerial reconnaissance in 2011 and the National Mapping Programme between 2016 and 2020, have extended and added detail to the known archaeological features on site.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the monument lies on the edge of the Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Claylands, adjacent to the Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge, between Cople and Willington. The settlement comprises a number of rural settlement enclosures of diverse size and form that extend for over 1.5km to the north-east including a Roman villa. The southern half of the settlement is focussed on what is understood to be a Roman road which runs roughly east to west across the centre of the site towards Cople. The settlement lies in an area where Iron Age and/or Romano-British settlement is generally less dense than those in the uplands north of Bedford.

DESCRIPTION: This description will focus on the key concentrations of settlement remains but will not provide a definitive inventory of the settlement, please be guided to the sources for greater detail.

Centred at grid reference TL 11142 48581 there appears to be two foci of settlement, one comprising accreted ditched curvilinear enclosures of varying sizes, bounded to the south-east by a probable linear road or trackway which aligns south-west to north-east. Associated rectilinear ditched enclosures suggest field boundaries. The curvilinear enclosures are replaced with small connected rectilinear enclosures as the complex extends north-east and is thought to include a Roman villa. A second settlement focus centred at TL11274 48748 comprises a series of rectilinear enclosure ditches, seemingly increasing in size from south-west to north-east, the two furthest north-east being the largest. Other nearby fragments of linear ditches suggest another field system.

Centred at grid reference TL 11546 49019 is an extensive area of conjoined and overlapping rectilinear enclosures and trackways which continue across a field boundary to the south-west into the area of settlement enclosures. At grid reference TL 11562 49050 the crop marks comprise a rectilinear enclosure measuring approximately 81m by 38m, from the south-west corner of which further linear ditches extend west and south to form smaller rectilinear enclosures. Several circular macula of uncertain function are located within 50m. To the east of the enclosure, several sections of linear ditch are aligned north-west to south-east and may be trackways associated with the field system.

At the furthest north-east extreme of the scheduled area, centred at TL 11831 49312, is another complex of accreted and overlapping curvilinear and rectilinear enclosures which possibly joined the south-west to north-east orientated trackway. The dating of the remains is not clear although they appear to represent different phases of settlement from the Iron Age to Romano-British periods.

In the southern half of the settlement, a double ditched linear feature runs roughly east-west across the site and is interpreted as a possible unnamed Roman road running towards Cople. South of this, centred at grid reference TL 11626 484717 is a large, elongated, irregularly shaped ditched enclosure of over 5100 square metres in size around which, joined to the inner edge of the ditch, are smaller curvilinear enclosures which appear to represent a field system and trackways.

About 530m north-east of Middle Farm and centred at TL11424 48190 at least five accreted subcircular enclosures are associated with linear features and partial rectilinear enclosures representing another field system.

The settlement is extensive and complex in form, whether the various enclosure sizes and forms represent a phased settlement, settlement movement over time or polyfocal rural settlement could only be determined through further survey, excavation and scientific analysis. However, the scale and quality of the cropmarks indicates a good survival of buried remains with a high archaeological potential.

EXCLUSIONS: all modern road and track surfaces and field boundary fences are excluded from the scheduling. The small wooded area approximately 550m north of Middle Farm which contains part of a water management system is also excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath all these features is included.

Sources

Other
Adams, A and Crowther, S ‘Bedford Borough Aerial Investigation & Mapping Project Report’ Historic England Research Report Series no. 91/2019
Bedfordshire Historic Environment Record (HER)

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