Details

The monument includes the upstanding and buried remains of a
Romano-British farmstead located on gently sloping ground 70m south of
Russell Farm. It includes a large sub-circular stone-walled enclosure
which has a number of smaller enclosures on its south and west sides.

The large sub-circular enclosure is formed by a double row of boulders
forming a wall approximately 1.6m in width. It has been overlain on its
northern side by Russell Farm but its surviving remains measure a maximum
of approximately 63m north-south by 43m east-west internally. There is an
inturned gateway at the south east side of the enclosure's perimeter wall
which is flanked by large boulders. Within the north east part of the
enclosure there are a number of large boulders which suggest the site of a
possible structure. Flanking the south and west sides of the large
sub-circular enclosure is a trackway and south of this there are the
remains of three sides of a sub-rectangular stone-walled enclosure with an
entrance on its north side off the trackway. Another smaller enclosure is
attached to the west side of this sub-rectangular enclosure. A trackway
separates these two enclosures from a number of smaller fragmentary
stone-walled enclosures on the western side of the main large sub-circular
enclosure.

A later iron water pump on the main enclosure's east side is also included
within the scheduling.

All modern field boundaries, fences and fenceposts surrounding young
trees, telegraph poles and support cables, a watering trough and a manhole
and cover are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath
all these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

In Cumbria and Northumberland several distinctive types of native settlements
dating to the Roman period have been identified. The majority were small, non-
defensive, enclosed homesteads or farms. In many areas they were of stone
construction, although in the coastal lowlands timber-built variants were also
common. In much of Northumberland, especially in the Cheviots, the enclosures
were curvilinear in form. Further south a rectangular form was more common.
Elsewhere, especially near the Scottish border, another type occurs where the
settlement enclosure was `scooped' into the hillslope. Frequently the
enclosures reveal a regularity and similarity of internal layout. The standard
layout included one or more stone round-houses situated towards the rear of
the enclosure, facing the single entranceway. In front of the houses were
pathways and small enclosed yards. Homesteads normally had only one or two
houses, but larger enclosures could contain as many as six. At some sites the
settlement appears to have grown, often with houses spilling out of the main
enclosure and clustered around it. At these sites up to 30 houses may be
found. In the Cumbrian uplands the settlements were of less regimented form
and unenclosed clusters of houses of broadly contemporary date are also known.
These homesteads were being constructed and used by non-Roman natives
throughout the period of the Roman occupation. Their origins lie in settlement
forms developed before the arrival of the Romans. These homesteads are common
throughout the uplands where they frequently survive as well-preserved
earthworks. In lowland coastal areas they were also originally common,
although there they can frequently only be located through aerial photography.
All homestead sites which survive substantially intact will normally be
identified as nationally important.

Despite the loss of the north side of the main enclosure and some modern
disturbance in the area of some of the small enclosures on the main
enclosure's west side, the Romano-British farmstead immediately south of
Russell Farm survives in relatively good condition and remains an
excellent example of this class of monument.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
SMR No. 2524, Cumbria SMR, Settlement south of Russell Farm, Burton in Kendal, (1986)
SMR No. 2524, Cumbria SMR, Settlement south of Russell Farm, Burton in Kendal, (1986)

Source: Historic England