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CLEVEDON HISTORY In the essay on the
Roman-Celtic period I shall enter no map references, so that the local farmers
who gave such support, during the early years in which the North Somerset
Archaeological Research Group was active; will not be worried by people
wandering the fields in search of Roman finds. It now appears that
far from being a wasteland flooded from one years end to the next, the moorland
in and around Clevedon was densely occupied during the 2nd to 5th centuries of
the Roman occupation. The population
explosion which occurred in the later period of this occupation led to an
increased need for food production, which I believe was the reason for so much
encroachment onto the moorlands, with as much cultivated land as possible being
taken into use. In Clevedon itself
the main sites lie scattered along the southern facing slopes of the town. The
Victoria County History records pottery and coins being found on the slopes
running from Christ Church along to Hangstone Quarry in Old Church Road. A small
scatter was found in the area of the Linden Road library. Pottery and stonework
was found in her garden on Dial Hill, close to the cricket field by Petra
Dowsett a schoolgirl member of the Research Group; pottery was also found in
mains trenches dug during the development of Esmond Grove on Dial Hill. At Clevedon Court
skeletons and pottery were discovered in the ground adjacent to the tennis court
in the immediate post-war period. Skeletons were also found during the building
of Christ Church and the Wesleyan Chapel in the reign of Victoria. One
inhumation was reported at the rear of houses in Coleridge Road in the 1870's.
Within the last decade skeletons have been located in mains trenches and
foundation work when the houses were built to the rear of Strode Farm near the
Old Church and Victoria Road junctions. In trenches cut for the gas
mains on the line of Teignmouth Road & Kingston Avenue, scattered Roman
Period rubbish pits were noticed. Little of value was discovered, but in one;
part of the handle of a bronze spoon was found. In a garden in Meadow Road a
brass coin forgery, of a gold coin of Magnentius was detected whilst the
occupant was gardening. It is quite probable that this had been forged on a site
located on Ken Moor. Other forged coins of the same period had turned up in
sites on the moors. Some small potsherds
had been remarked in gardens of Old Street below the school. A rumour was heard
at the time of building extension classrooms that a skeleton had been quietly
disposed of for fear of holding up the work. A study of Aerial
Photographs, which showed circular shapes on the surface of a field near the
Clevedon-Tickenham boundary, stimulated a trial dig in the field. As a result
the floor stones of a crude Roman Period dwelling came to light, together with
potsherds, many of which were from the *Congresbury Pottery Kilns. An
examination of a site above the river on a higher level led to a substantial
floor with a drainage ditch to the higher side to spread water around the
building and shed it down the hill. Many samples of potsherds were found some of
them; having been thrown into the drainage ditch survived as large fragments,
half of a large hand millstone was found in the ditch also. (*Excavated by the
Research Group Junior Section in 1964-6. A total of five kilns were found in the
Venus Street area of Congresbury in the period of three separate years digging.
Three Kilns were in the paddock of Mrs & Mr Rex Rossiter at Yew Tree Farm,
and two were discovered in the field in which the original waster heap was
found.) These finds which
were originally deposited at St. Brandons school (some of the pupils having
helped in the excavations) are now in the custody of Woodspring Museum. Also
found were a small blue bead, a faceted rose quartz crystal, a bronze bracelet
with a 'wheel of life' motif design and some boot nails. Test holes in the
surrounding fields revealed a small scatter of pottery but nothing of great
significance. Walking the fields in
the area after disturbances, -- ploughing, pipe draining, ditch throwing etc.
resulted in pottery being discovered on a field surface to the north of the
original test dig site. This was most interesting as the field was one of the
lowest in the area with an O.D. of between 16 to 17 feet. On the Ken to Yatton
moors an extensive occupation site covering a length of over a mile had been
sampled. Test holes had been dug to establish area limits, and where it was
needed identification excavations had been undertaken. The site types had
varied from burials - rubbish pits to corn drying and coin forging. Location of
these sites were sharply defined, and coincided in many of the instances with
the traces of vanished river courses which abound on the flat lands of the moor.
Some showing merely as meanders are evidence of the sump area of the inner moor;
but others which have more definite lines, are all that is left to show where
rivers drained our moors, and ran to the sea, at places other than the rivers
and rhines, which are part of the present landscape. In all instances the
sites where Roman Period occupation was proved, were on the HIGH GROUND side of
the traces of old river courses. One instance in particular showed an obvious
artificial cutting with a contemporary drainage ditch cut across to it. A proof
that the occupants of the site had been busily engaged in draining the area as
well as illegally producing forged coins from old bronze ornaments. It suggests that far
from being a lonely moorland waste, the low lying areas were farmed as
intensively as that generation of our countrymen were capable of. Possibly some
of the areas were merely summer grazing meadowland, but the Wemberham Roman
villa on the river Yeo is hardly higher than some of the land on the moor
fringes. This would point to a system whereby on the higher ground of the moors,
arable crops were raised; and during the retreat of any winter flooding grazing
flocks were pushed out on to the water meadows. The North Somerset Archaeological Research Group under the directors Messrs. C. M. Sykes, and Gray Usher succeeded in the discovery and identification of over 60 separate locations of occupational scatter in the close area of Clevedon during the time that the author was group recorder covering the period from 1960 to 1980. |