Site of Possible Roman Settlement 1 km W of Church

Description of this historic site

Findspot - fragments of Roman pottery from jugs, a lamp and a cinerary urn were found 1km south west of Little Lawford, suggesting that this might be the site of a Roman settlement.

Notes about this historic site

1 Excavation of a small gravel pit in 1873 revealed the neck of a Roman jug. In 1874 in the same pit was found a small Roman vessel of red-glazed ware, 5 and a half inches in diameter at the bottom, 4″ at the top and 3″ high. They were identified by Bloxam as a praefericulum, used for funerary libations and a lamp of unusual design. Further excavation revealed a patch of black soil 1.8m deep and 1.2m wide. Several bits of dark brown pottery were found and also the side of a red coloured vessel with a pattern of a double row of white spots. Also a rim fragment from a cinerary urn of rough brown ware. The burnt black earth began at 18″ below the surface. A workman on the site recalled that many such patches had existed but had been destroyed.
2 Traces of Roman occupation discovered some few years ago. These consisted of pottery including one complete red unglazed ?lamp.
3 Potsherds, including an odd-shaped vessel of Samian ware 2″ high found on the south side of the Avon in (Long) Lawford.
5 The ‘?lamp’ is actually an inkwell.
6 There is no definite evidence to indicate that this site was a cemetery, a settlement seems more probable.
7 Illustration.

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