Find Spot record MDO4291 - Iron Age and Romano British settlement site and burials, Allards Quarry, Marnhull

Iron Age and Romano-British settlement site and inhumation burials excavated by C E Bean in 1932-39 and Mrs A Williams in 1944-5. An Iron Age settlement, which was then unoccupied from the 1st century until late in the 3rd century when it was reoccupied. Finds included pottery, a bronze ring and brooch, a shale armlet, spindle whorls, querns, combs, sling pellets and two coins of the Durotriges. Features dating to the late 3rd century included a Roman hut, gullies, hearths and several burials, and coins and pottery were found.

The quarry face has receded to the edge of the wood. A few fragments of Romano-British pottery were noted in the northern face of the quarry but neither in the wood nor in the unquarried area to the north was there any visible trace of antiquity. <3>

I have worked here for a considerable number of years and was present when Mrs. Audrey Williams excavated the site. She appeared to have excavated the thickest area of the settlement for since then only a few pits have been found and there is less and less material unearthed as the quarry face moves westward. I have found fragments of rotary querns. No foundations have been found since 1945.<3.1>

The circular cropmarks visible in three fields centred ST 797199, ST 798199 and ST 798198 on RAF air photographs <6.1> are natural variations in vegetation. The quarry remains much as described in the field report of 27.7.55 <3>; it is still active. No further discoveries of Iron Age/Romano-British material have been reported. <6>

Additional bibliography. <7>

Description of the 2 fragments of one slab of Roman sideboard found at the site. <8>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1930, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1929, 99 (Serial). SDO33.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1951, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1950, 20-75 (Serial). SDO50.

<3> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 27-JUL-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1961, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1960, 85 (Serial). SDO60.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 1 (Monograph). SDO148.

‘The following sites, no doubt related, are on a ridge of Corallian limestone at 200 ft. to 250 ft. above sea-level, S.E. of the R. Stour. … (69) Settlement Site and Inhumation Burials (79551985), Iron Age and Romano-British, were excavated at Allard's Quarry by C.E. Bean in 1932–9 and Mrs. A. Williams in 1944–5. A settlement of the Iron Age 'A' culture, apparently undefended, was continued on a smaller scale during 'B' and 'C' phases on the site. It appears to have been virtually deserted from the middle of the 1st century A.D. until late in the 3rd century, when it was reoccupied. The Iron Age 'A' remains consisted of 66 pits, 1½ ft. to 9 ft. deep, three series of post-holes indicating rectangular huts (one measuring 20 ft. by 12 ft.), pairs of postholes, and two burials. To the Iron Age 'B' phase belonged 19 pits and two circular huts, one 9 ft. across. A possible hut-site, four post-holes indicating a granary 6 ft. square, 16 pits and two burials were attributed to the Belgic occupation. Finds of the Iron Age included much pottery, a bronze ring and brooch, a shale armlet and pedestal base, spindle-whorls, querns, weaving-combs, sling-pellets, and two coins of the Durotriges. Remains of horse beans were recovered from a pit.
The Roman features consisted of a hut site (17 ft. by 13 ft.) with sleeper-beam trenches, gullies, hearths and several burials. Some roof tiles indicated more solid buildings. The coins and pottery were mostly of the 4th century. A small quantity of 2nd-century samian and coarse ware, unassociated with any structural features, was also found. (Dorset Procs. LI (1929), 99; LXXII (1950), 20–75; LXXXII (1960), 85.)’

<5> Cunliffe, B W and Fulford, M G, 1982, Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Great Britain, 47 (Monograph). SWX1554.

<6> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F2 GB 02-AUG-78 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

<6.1> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF CPE/UK/1924 1315-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17450.

<7> Whimster, Rowan, 1981, Burial practices in Iron Age Britain: a discussion and gazetteer of the evidence c 700 BC-AD 43, 10, 42, 207, 229 (Monograph). SDO17451.

<8> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1988, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1987, 95 (Serial). SDO87.

Record last edited

Oct 2 2022 1:57PM