Monument record MLI51369 - Romano-British Settlement Site, Littleborough Lane

Summary

Romano-British settlement site on both sides of Littleborough Lane (formerly Till Bridge Lane), comprising ribbon development along the Roman road to the north-west of Marton.

Type and Period (7)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Full Description

Romano-British early 2nd century to 4th century pottery found in 1959 and 1975, in a scatter, including grey ware, grey burnished ware and tile (now in the City and County Musem), extending both sides of Till Bridge Lane. Two antoniniani of Carausius, both with the letter PAX AVG on the reverse have been found. {1}{2} There are also pits and boundaries on either side of Till Bridge Lane. Aerial photographic evidence suggests a number of small rectangular enclosures or possibly stone buildings, with internal linear divisions and pits. {3}{4}{5}{6} The Romano-British settlement at this point on Till Bridge Lane (now called Littleborough Lane) is a ribbon development; that is it was stretched out along the road, over about 2.5km (although the buildings were not continuous for this distance), and probably did not extend further than about 100m from the road. Fragments of roof tile have been found close to the road which suggests that there were some substantial buildings in the settlement. A large quantity of Roman pottery was collected during field walking in 1993 and 1995 as part of a private research project. The assemblage included fragments of Samian pottery from Gaul, wine flagons and amphorae (large pottery vessels for storage), Parisian ware, Dales ware, shell-gritted ware, grey ware and colour-coat wares. Fragments of pottery presses used in cheese making and spindle whorls for weaving were also found. Finds of copper and iron slag indicates that metal-working took place here, but probably not on a large scale. Bronze objects such as cosmetic implements have also been recovered from the fields as well as many brooches and rings. Subsequent magnetometry survey conducted as part of the project recorded a large number of curvilinear magnetic anomalies across the settlement area, thought to represent the remains of several ditched droveways, and many enclosures, pits and property boundaries. {7} The site was the subject of a small community excavation project in 2013. The excavation was targeted on two intersecting Roman ditches that were likely to be property or field boundaries. A sequence of features were identified, mostly dating to the Roman period, including pits and ditched enclosures. These features included a high volume of butchery waste and pottery. The pottery recovered during the investigation was predominantly of the 2nd to the 3rd centuries, although there were some later Iron Age transitional types, which may be 1st century in date, and there was also 4th century material. The coins recovered from the site were mid 3rd to early 4th century in date. Continual ploughing on the site appears to have truncated the majority of the features, however, and a large quantity of pottery could be seen scattered on the surface of the field. {8}{9} Trial trenching on a field in the northeast corner of the site in 2017 identified a number of densely packed intercutting Roman ditches from which finds including significant quantities of pottery and the upper half of a beehive quern were recovered. Nine coins, seven of which were identified as Roman, and two iron rings (one set with an intaglio of mid-2nd to 3rd century style) were also recovered. Subsequent trial trenching immediately to the north in 2022 encountered a further two ditches of Roman date and a spread of Romano-British material containing significant quantities of pottery including two near-complete Samian ware bowls. {10}{11}

Sources/Archives (10)

  •  Index: Lincolnshire County Council. Sites and Monuments Record Card Index. SK 88 SW: C, O, W.
  •  Artefact: City and County Museum Collection. LCNCC 1975.42.
  •  Bibliographic Reference: P.L. Everson, C.C. Taylor and C.J. Dunn. 1991. Change and Continuity: Rural Settlement in North-West Lincolnshire. Archive notes.
  •  Aerial Photograph: ST JOSEPH, J.K.S.. 1945-79. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY COLLECTION. AHU 25-6 (1963).
  •  Aerial Photograph: InnerVisions Aerial Photography. 1993->. InnerVisions Aerial Photographs. 184/0697/28A (1997).
  •  Map: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. 1992-1996. Lincolnshire National Mapping Programme. SK8382: LI.671.3-5.
  •  Unpublished Document: Sally Ann Worrell. 1997. Marton, North Lincolnshire: A Romano-British Settlement in its Context. -.
  •  Report: Archaeological Project Services. 2013. Land at Littleborough Lane. APS site code: MACE12.
  •  Archive: Archaeological Project Services. 2013. Land at Littleborough Lane. LCNCC 2010.174.
  •  Report: CFA Archaeology Ltd. 2020. Land at Littleborough Lane, Marton: Archaeological Evaluation. CFA Site Code: LLMA/2364.

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Location

Grid reference Centred SK 8346 8225 (593m by 421m) Estimated from Sources
Civil Parish GATE BURTON, WEST LINDSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE
Civil Parish MARTON, WEST LINDSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE

Related Monuments/Buildings (3)

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Record last edited

Jun 28 2024 12:06PM

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