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Sprouston, Roxburghshire: an Anglo-Saxon settlement discovered by air reconnaissance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

J. K. S. St Joseph
J. K. S. St Joseph
Affiliation:
Selwyn College, Cambridge
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Extract

Crop-marks revealing an archaeological site at Sprouston (NT 758362), Roxburghshire, the subject of this paper, were observed and photographed from the air on 22 July 1964, but the character of the site did not become evident until further observations were made in August 1970. In the flying programmes of the Committee for Aerial Photography of the University of Cambridge Sprouston has been photographed from the air on fourteen subsequent occasions. The vertical and oblique photographs, III in all, in the University Collection, together with oblique photographs taken during the last few years by staff of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for Scotland, are the sole source of information about the site. No trace of any of the features to be described is ordinarily visible on the surface, as is only too apparent from walking over the ground.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 10 , December 1981 , pp. 191 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

1 The discovery was briefly described in the Twentieth Report (for 1969–70) of the University Committee for Aerial Photography, Cambridge University Reporter 101, Special no. 16 (1971), p. 116. A short account of the site with sketch-plan based upon air photographs held by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for Scotland has recently been published by Reynolds, N., ‘Dark Age Timber Halls and the Background to Excavation at Balbridie’, Scottish Arcbaeol. Forum 10 (1980), 50–2Google Scholar and fig. 7. Mr B. McCririck, of Whirmuirhaugh, kindly allowed me to walk over his fields

2 Hope-Taylor, B., Yeavering. An Anglo-Britisb Centre of Early Northumbrian Dept of the Environment Archaeol. Reports 7 (London, 1977).Google Scholar

3 Below Westnewton, where the Bowmont Water is joined by the College Burn, the stream is known as the River Glen.

4 Yeavering, pp. 17–20.

5 St Joseph, J. K. S., ‘Air Reconnaissance: Recent Results, 46’, Antiquity 52 (1978), 236–8 and pl. xxxiib.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Hope-Taylor, , Yeavering, pp. 78–87.Google Scholar

7 All dimensions are given in imperial units to facilitate comparison with the Yeavering report, where, in the text, imperial units only are used.

8 For the reference letters, see above.

9 Hope-Taylor, , Yeavering, pp. 58–62Google Scholar and fig. 24.

10 Ibid. pp. 49–50 and fig. 13.

11 Ibid. p. 91 and fig. 38.

12 Ibid. pp. 125 and 129.

13 Ibid. p. 319 and fig. 78.

14 In this paragraph 1 have drawn very largely on information that Dr Simon Keynes has kindly supplied.

15 Nicolaisen, W. F. H., Scottish Placc-Namis: their Study and Significance (London, 1976), pp. 36 and 38.Google Scholar

16 Jeffrey, A, The History and Antiquities of Roxburghshire and Adjacent Districts, 4 vols. (London, 1857–64) III, 192–9.Google Scholar