The Romano-British landscape in the area around Ollerton and Boughton

In comparison with other tribal areas within Central Britain, what is now the modern county of Nottinghamshire has produced relatively little evidence of the pattern of life during the four centuries of Roman occupation. In the area around Ollerton during the last century, there have been a series of random finds within the parishes of Laxton and Kneesall, while more recent research has revealed evidence of a military road close to Bilsthorpe. Sadly there have been losses, and it is to be regretted that a Romano-British settlement at Cocking Hill Farm near Boughton has been virtually obliterated by wartime temporary accommodation and very recent industrial development. That settlement would have remained a rather isolated feature in the landscape had it not been for a programme of aerial photography carried out by Sheffield University over a six-year period followed by a report published in 1980.

The aerial survey covered South Yorkshire and North Nottinghamshire and within the band of underlying Bunter sandstone, a pattern of cropmarks was found to extend over an area of approximately 125 square miles – 25 miles from north to south and five miles from east to west. Within a remarkably regular pattern in the landscape, the most common form has become known as the ‘brickwork plan’ field system, where long and parallel ditches produced field areas by being criss-crossed by minor ditches, set at right angles to the main lines. The extent and regularity of the field system suggests that it was the result of an overall plan where the long boundary ditches were laid out at right angles to the line of local rivers. The pattern is clearly visible between Worksop and Retford where the rivers Ryton and Idle lie in a roughly north to south alignment.

The field system extends at least as far south as Boughton, where an area to the east of Boughton Brake and the disused railway line contains a pattern of rectangular crop marks. An even clearer pattern is revealed to the west of Bothamsall villages at Spittalmoor Forest Farm, where there is evidence of a substantial settlement, set between two long lines of boundary ditches. It is possible that the settlement at Cocking Hill Farm may also relate to the ‘brickwork’ planning system, which then opens up the issue of how these various settlements were linked by connecting roadways.

Archeologists have commented upon the apparent absence of communication routes for the movement of goods, but al likely explanation may lie in the bulk of the field system being used for cattle farming, given the need on the part of the Roman Army for meat and hides. Cattle could have been moved along less well-defined track-ways en route for forts, towns and meat distribution centres.

For further reading:

“Early landscape from the Air” by DN Riley, University of Sheffiled 1980. (Studies of Crop marks in South Yorkshire and North Nottinghamshire).

Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, Volume XCI (1997) “Dunston’s Clump and the Brickwork Plan Field Systems at Babworth, Notts.” By D Garton, pp16–73