Summary

Prehistoric and Roman remains 200m north east of Fernhill Farm.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 20 May 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.

This monument includes a prehistoric and Roman settlement located on a moderate north facing slope overlooking the River Avon. The monument is known from cropmarks visible on aerial photographs and survives as a rectangular enclosure, a ring ditch, a sub rectangular enclosure, pits and linear features. The rectangular enclosure measures approximately 30m by 20m. At the south eastern end of the rectangular enclosure is a ring ditch, representing the site of a round house, measuring approximately 28m in diameter. A sub rectangular enclosure is situated to the north-west. The enclosure measures approximately 50m by 25m with an entrance on the southern side. Linear features and pits are located between and around the enclosures.

The features and character of the site is comparable with a site at Fladbury (NGR: SO 9846 4680) that is dated to the prehistoric and Roman periods.

Further archaeological remains survive to the east of the monument, and are the subject of a separate scheduling.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Although they can frequently only be located through aerial photography. All homestead sites which survive substantially intact will normally be identified as nationally important. Romano-British aggregate villages are nucleated settlements formed by groups of five or more subsistence level farmsteads enclosed either individually or collectively, or with no formal boundary. Most enclosures, where they occur, are formed by curvilinear walls or banks, sometimes surrounded by ditches, and the dwellings are usually associated with pits, stock enclosures, cultivation plots and field systems, indicating a mixed farming economy. In use throughout the Roman period (c.43-450 AD), they often occupied sites of earlier agricultural settlements. In view of their rarity, all positively identified examples with surviving remains are considered to merit protection. Despite ploughing and the removal of a boundary hedge, the prehistoric and Roman remains 200m north east of Fernhill Farm survive comparatively well. The archaeological remains survive exclusively as buried features or remains and the monument is significant in its own right and as part of a wider archaeological landscape of prehistoric and Roman settlements on both sides of the River Avon. The enclosures, linear features, pits and ring ditch will have potential for remaining layers and deposits that will contain important archaeological information relating to the use, construction and occupation of the monument in addition to providing environmental evidence.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Hancox, E. & Russell, O. 2009, Recent Changes to Scheduled Monuments in Worcestershire. Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service
Pastscape Monument No:- 328322

Source: Historic England