Fieldwalking the cropmark landscape on the Sherwood Sandstone of Nottinghamshire
Daryl Garton, 2009. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000007. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Trent and Peak Archaeology, English Heritage unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Daryl
Garton
12 Collington St
Beeston
Nottingham
NG9 1FJ
UK
Tel: 0115 07870136086
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 934
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000007
- How to cite using this DOI
Overview
The primary aim of the fieldwalking was to gain a data set that would complement the cropmark-landscape, newly discovered in the mid 1970s. In combination with selective site investigations, it was hoped that fieldwalking evidence would give a broad dating tool, establish some evidence for patterns of artefact discard, and enable some characterization of the associated assemblages that would contribute towards chronology and economy of the area. It was hoped that all these would help in understanding how this landscape articulated internally, and how it might relate to the better known 'sites' with little landscape context. In turn, this would contribute to the wider assessment of Roman rural settlement patterns, which are still poorly known in the East Midlands, and would encompass the themes of settlement hierarchies and landscape adaption and change. In addition, the project was intended to contribute to the methodology of landscape-characterization, providing documentation against which Planning Archaeologists might make effective management decisions for this landscape.
A single Later Upper Palaeolithic 'cheddar point' was recovered. Most of the lithics belong in the Later Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, and although only at very low densities, this does fill a lacuna in the record for this part of Nottinghamshire.
Excavations suggest that the cropmark enclosures were initially occupied in the 1st century BC/AD, and small numbers of potsherds of this date were found widely in the fieldwalking. As some cropmark-fields were laid out at an angle to the Roman road from Lincoln to Doncaster (just to the north of the study area), this suggests a pre-Conquest inception for this agricultural landscape, though precise dating is much needed.
Thirty-four cropmarks, predominantly single enclosures, did not produce any Romano-British pottery. It is suggested that they were used for a different function, or perhaps were earlier in date, than the groups of enclosures.
Given the proximity of the Roman pottery industries in South Yorkshire, it is hardly surprising that 2nd/3rd century pottery was most abundant among sherds from fieldwalking, being recovered from a majority of enclosures. Where earlier pot is lacking, this might represent new occupation, or a shift in the focus of settlement or pot discard. Even the larger collections of potsherds include few tablewares, as elsewhere on rural sites.
As at the excavated enclosures, few diagnostic sherds dating after the mid-3rd century were found by fieldwalking, their distribution correlating with those sites that have yielded the widest diversity of pot types. These enclosures are spaced at 5-6km intervals and are mostly located on till or alluvium, which would have formed more moisture-retentive, and probably richer, agricultural soils.
The clustering of the Romano-British pot over enclosures, and the almost total lack of sherds over fields, suggests that any middens containing potsherds were not removed to the fields as manure. This pattern seems to have persisted, since medieval sherds were also at very low densities, perhaps reflecting the documented practice of intermittent 'breck' cultivation away from the villages.
The artefacts are deposited in the Bassetlaw Museum, Retford, Nottinghamshire.
The Digital Archive
The ADS archive holds the full datasets produced by this project, and is a companion to the reports published in 2007 and 2008.
Garton, D., with Nailor, V. 2007. 'Flintwork and medieval pottery from fieldwalking over cropmarks on the Sherwood Sandstone of north Nottinghamshire' Transactions of the Thoroton Society Nottinghamshire, 111, 15-32.
Also see - Jacobi, R., Garton, D. and Brown, J. 2001. 'Field-walking and the Later Upper Palaeolithic of Nottinghamshire', Transactions of the Thoroton Society Nottinghamshire, 105, 17-22.
Garton, D, with Leary, R.S., Cowgill, J., Firman, R. Wright. L. 2008. 'The Romano-British landscape of the Sherwood Sandstone of Nottinghamshire: fieldwalking the brickwork-plan field-systems', Transactions of the Thoroton Society Nottinghamshire 112, 15-110.
The project datasets are provided in the following folders/directories:
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| areas_fieldwalked | Identifies areas walked with topographic and environmental characteristics. |
| artefacts_notRBpot | Locates and catalogues individual items by material-type including: flint, brick+tile, fire-cracked pebbles, metal, querns, and medieval pot by date-range. |
| artefacts_RB_pot | Locates and catalogues individual Romano-British pot-sherds by fabric, form and date, and the longevity and diversity of defined groups of sherds. |
| cropmarks_analysis | Identifies landscape blocks and field-system types, and classifies enclosure groups. |
| cropmarks_nmp | Raster images of rectified NMP 1:10,000 map sheets of cropmarks © Crown copyright, National Monuments Record. |
| cropmarks_other | Raster images of cropmarks + soilmarks not plotted by NMP |
| landscape | Provides an overall context from the plan of rivers and lines of OS grid at 1km intervals. |
| smr_data_2002 | All entries on the Nottinghamshire County Council Sites & Monuments Record organized by period (data collected 2002 and included here with permission). |
Acknowledgements
This project and report were funded wholly by English Heritage, whom also provided the NMP cropmark plots, with thanks due to Jonathan Last, Paddy O'Hara and Pete Wilson for their help and encouragement since 1984. In addition, this work could not have been accomplished without the generous agreement for access to the fields of the thirty landowners and tenants.
Projects of such long gestation have many contributors, with catalogues and reports produced at varying dates between 1995 and 2008 following the fieldwalking and initial artefact processing. The stalwarts of the field team included Paul Caldwell, Les Cliffe, Val Disney, Jen Eccles, Arthur & Yvonne Heap, Alison Kennett, Rhoda Mincher, Alan & Celia Morris and Betty & Larry Salter. Catalogues for the archive were created by Jane Cowgill (metalwork), Ron J. Firman (brick and tile), Daryl Garton (lithics), Ruth Leary (Romano-British pottery), Vicki Nailor (medieval pottery), Margaret Ward (samain pottery), and Liz Wright (querns). Richard Sheppard plotted some of the cropmarks for use in the field prior to use of the NMP plots, with subsequent work on the cropmark classification (using the NMP plots) by Ruth Leary and Cilla Wild. The post-survey archive was worked on by a team comprising Jenny Brown, Gavin Kinsley, Ruth Leary, Steve Malone, Graham Murray and Richard Sheppard, with the format of the ArcView GIS guided by Keith Challis. Help and information was provided by Bob Alvey, Mike Bishop, Malcolm Dolby, Graeme Guilbert, Julian Henderson, Lloyd Laing, Claire Pickersgill, Yvette Sablerolles and Caroline Wickham.
