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A Roman Lime Kiln at Weekley, Northants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

D. A. Jackson ,
L. Biek  and
B. F. Dix
D. A. Jackson
Affiliation:
122 Ardington Road, Northampton
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Extract

A Roman Villa at Weekley in Northamptonshire (SP 885 818) was first referred to by eighteenth-century antiquaries, who stated that ‘pavements, foundations, pottery and a great deal of money’ had been ploughed up in a field known as Castle Hedges. The site of these discoveries is one mile north-east of what appears to be a fairly extensive Roman settlement on the northern outskirts of Kettering. The area is now under threat from ironstone-quarrying, and preliminary surveys were carried out during 1970 both from the air and on the ground. These indicate that the site began in the late Iron Age with a series of enclosures and occupation subsequently continued into the Roman period. A number of pottery kilns were found which probably date to the third quarter of the first century A.D.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 4 , November 1973 , pp. 128 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © D. A. Jackson, L. Biek and B. F. Dix 1973. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 For these earlier discoveries, see VCH Northants. i (1902), 194.

2 P.S.A. xxiii2 (1909–11), 493-501, 223-5; xxvi2 (1913–14), 245.

3 Excavation was carried out on behalf of the Department of the Environment during the Autumn of 1970. Grateful thanks are due to the landowner, His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, to his agent Mr. J. K. Royston, and to the tenant farmer, Mr. J. Brodie, for permission to carry out the work.

4 The survey was carried out by Messrs. A. J. Clark and D. Haddon-Reece of the Ancient Monuments Laboratory's Geophysics Section, using a gradiometer.

5 This is about a third of a mile north of the position recorded on O.S. maps.

6 Robinson, D. J. and Cooke, R. U., ‘Lime kilns in Surrey’, Surrey Arch. Colls., lix (1962), 19–26.Google Scholar

7 I am grateful for information on this point received from Dr. F. W. Anderson, Institute of Geological Sciences.

8 E.g. at Helpston and Northfleet; see notes 21 and 22 below.

9 I am grateful to Dr. N. Davey for this suggestion.

10 Woods, P. J., ‘A mid-second century pit group from Brixworth, Northants.’, J. Northampton Mus. i (1967). 4–28.Google Scholar

11 Johnston, D. E., ‘Romano-British pottery kilns near Northampton’, Antiq. Journ. xlix (1969), 75–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Jackson and Biek (forthcoming).

13 Many of the points raised in this section will be considered in more detail in a separate article dealing with Roman lime-burning by B.F.D.

14 N. Davey, A History of Building Materials (1961), 98 ff.

15 Cato, de agri cultura xxxviii.

16 ibid: … facito fortax totam fomacem infimam complectatur.

17 Baradez, J., ‘Nouvelles fouilles à Tipasa: les fours-à-chaux des constructeurs de l'enceinte’, Libyca v (1957). 277–94.Google Scholar

18 Banner Jahrbücher 169 (1969), 442; Sölter, W., Römische Kalkbrenner im Rheinland (Düsseldorf, 1970).Google Scholar

19 Grenier, A., Manuel d'Archéologie gallo-romaine vi (2) 1934, p. 944, n. 1.Google Scholar

20 Unpublished information from members of the Wellingborough Archeological Society.

21 J.R.S. li (1961), 177, fig. 23 (section) and pl. xiv.

22 Steadman, W. H., Excavations on a Roman site at Northfleet (Dartford, 1913)Google Scholar; also VCH Kent iii (1932), 128 with pl. xxviii.

23 Sölter, W., Römische Kalkbrenner im Rheinland (Düsseldorf, 1970).Google Scholar

24 Cato, de agri cultura xxxviii: si unopraefunio coques, lacunam intus magnam facito, ubi satis siet ubicinerem concipiat, ne foras sit educendus.

25 Steadman, op. cit. (note 22), p. 11, where it was suggested that the mark was caused by a shovel in extracting the burnt lime. As unloading would almost certainly have been carried out from the top of the kiln, this explanation is unlikely.

26 P. Rahtz and E. Greenfield (H.M.S.O.), forthcoming.

27 JRS 1 (1960), 221, fig. 24; Lines. Archit. and Archaeol. Soc. Reports and Papers x (pt. 2) (1964), 75-104.

28 S. S. Frere, Britannia (1967), 266 ff.; A. L. F. Rivet, ‘Social and Economic Aspects’ in The Roman Villa in Britain (1969), 173-216.