We started here in February 2021, we started at the very top end to the north west we found a
substantial iron age settlement there. That settlement proceeds down towards where we're
working now on top of the iron age here we've got a large roman settlement that we've got the very
eastern edge of and you can see now we're currently stood on top of the roman road
that we've exposed. It runs through the entire area and this section here is 10 meters wide. The road
is exceedingly wide. Most roman roads don't go more than sort of about 44 meter mark, this one measures
10 meters here. So we believe that this is where they've been doing most of their work so
at the time there would be carts coming in and the carts going out down to welsh road to access
onto the roman road down there to the east. People are bringing produce in animals
and other trade goods. It used to be a very active area. This is a large road to facilitate a lot
of traffic, the amount of stonework that's gone down is extraordinary we have areas here that
are clearly demarcated off for different uses so the road is for bringing trade in and bringing in
produce that started from the local farms and the local area. The area just to my right is likely
an area of domestic settlement for animals so they would have kept the animals to the very periphery
of the settlement so down towards the south east we have an area got heavy evidence of kilns and
potentially bread making so things like so things like industrial stuff is more
segregated to the bottom end and then just behind me on this side the bulk is more of a
domestic settlement so what we've see what you would see is a whole high of activity
people doing different things people living people working and people trading as well
I'm currently kneeling on the upper level of what we believe is an area with a variety of kilns
so just in front of me you can see the variation in the soils you've got reds towards the back
and grey's in the middle we see we believe the fire for this kiln here
would have been right at the back there's a kiln just behind me as well again more patches of red
and brown and then just to my right as well there's a similar thing so
we believe that these areas could be for a variety of reasons they could be for
bread making foundries for metal work or indeed something as simple as a pottery kiln as well.
This is one of four wells that we currently have on site and we'll be looking to take these down
now to find the true depth they can anywhere from a meter to up to six meters deep generally
at the bottom of these wells you'll get things like coins from votive offerings animals will
fall in and there's a variety of nice pottery as well during the bottom of these things so we're
really excited to try and get to the bottom of these and understand what's at the bottom.
This is a roman building that we found on site i'm currently stabbed with inside of
the entranceway that you can see with the gap in the stonework you've also then got the rectangle
shape of the building foundations coming all around in the middle we appear to have found
an area of burning which we believe that the heart has been we found then in a later period
towards sort of the dream jd period they actually put a larger wall all the way through on top of
the bit to my left they've been substantial amount of work to re-manage this area and
can possibly improve it to what their needs have been. It's been a fantastic site for everyone
involved everyone here is exceedingly happy to be working on it and almost privileged to extend it
as well for me personally this has been one of the best sites i've ever worked on in over 10
years of archaeology now so as well as finding all the lovely buildings here and all the roads
we've also had some nice finds from offsite as well which we can have a look at now.