Archive from the 1972-73 rescue excavation at Redhill Roman fort (Uxacona) in Shropshire carried out by David Browne
Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, 2019. https://doi.org/10.5284/1052665. How to cite using this DOI
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- ADS Collection: 3419
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1052665
- How to cite using this DOI
Overview
Redhill Roman site (NGR SJ 7261 1097), near Lilleshall (Shropshire), is mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary as Uxacona (literally the 'high place'; Rivet and Smith 1979), and is situated on the Roman road (Watling Street) to the east of the major Roman fort, and later town of Wroxeter (Viroconium). The Uxacona site occupies an exposed hilltop making this an ideal strategic location for military purposes. Uxacona is the first significant Roman focus of activity along Watling Street to the east of Wroxeter, and as a convenient staging post in the supply chain to the legionary fort, became also a civilian settlement. Unfortunately, the Redhill prominence also provided the ideal place for a large covered reservoir providing gravity water supply to Telford, and so the site was extensively developed as such by Severn Trent Water in 1973.
Rescue excavations by David Browne in 1972–73 (funded by DoE/Ministry of Works) established that the earliest Roman fort probably belonged to the primary phase of the conquest/occupation in this part of the west Midlands (Browne and Boon 2004). Civilian settlement became evident alongside the road in the 2nd century. This fieldwork resulted in the area being scheduled as an Ancient Monument (list entry number 1006272). For a general survey of overall site see Buteux (2005).
In 2011–13 further investigation of this site was undertaken for Severn Trent Water during the extending of existing facilities (Mann et al 2015; Shropshire museums accession reference E.00159). This confirmed the surviving quality of the remains, and, in particular, further explored the civilian settlement by extending the 1972–73 excavated area southwards and up to the Roman road.
Understanding how the different parts of this complex site, excavated at different times, related to each other required further work, and so an audit of the 1972–73 site archive (supported by Historic England) was undertaken (Hurst et al 2015), which demonstrated its potential and research value. Accordingly a project was designed to make the archive of the rescue excavation on the main fort area available on-line to facilitate future research, and, in the course of this, some select modern analysis of the fort ditches, as excavated in 1972–73, was also done. This has enabled the amalgamation of the data for those ditches which overlapped into both excavation areas (Hurst et al forthcoming). In the course of the amalgamation it was possible to develop an up-to-date phasing and synthesis of results across this part of the Uxacona site, with the intention that this would be available to support future site management.
References
Browne, D M, and Boon, G C, 2004 Excavations at Redhill, Lilleshall, Shropshire: an interim report, Trans Shrops Archaeol Hist Soc 77, 1–9.
Buteux, V, 2005 Extensive Urban Survey – the Central Marches Historic Towns Survey 1992-6. Available at https://doi.org/10.5284/1000325.
Hurst, D, Evans, J, Mann, A, and Hedge, R, 2015 Audit of the 1972–3 excavation archive, Redhill, Shropshire, Worcestershire Archaeology rep 2202, Library of Unpublished Fieldwork Reports [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1038152.
Hurst, D, Mann, A, Evans, C J, Griffin, L, Pearson, E, and Richer, S, forthcoming Redhill (Uxacona), Telford, Shropshire: excavations in 1972–73 and 2011–13, Trans Shropshire Archaeol Hist Soc 94.
Mann, A, Evans, C J, Griffin, L, Pearson, E, Richer, S and Hurst, D, 2015 Excavations in 2011–13 at Redhill (Uxacona), Telford, Shropshire (archive report), Worcestershire Archaeology rep 2209. Library of Unpublished Fieldwork Reports [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1035731.
Rivet, A L F, and Smith, C, 1979 The place-names of Roman Britain. London: Batsford.
