Monument record 9191 - Roman settlement at Whitehall Farm

An extensive area of Iron Age/Roman settlement initially identified by a significant scatter of finds. The core of the settlement is defined by a villa which is surrounded by enclosures, trackways and other associated features.

{1} The site is one of several enigmatic Roman settlements identified in the area adjacent to Watling Street and forms part of a larger regional landscape distribution of sites circumscribed by the Roman small towns of Whilton Lodge (Bannaventa), Towcester (Lactodorum) and Duston. Situated at approximately 120m OD the underlying geology is comprised of Northampton Sand and Ironstone interspersed with Glacial Sand and Gravel.
The site was initially discovered by Dave Derby and Steve Pulley in 1996 during the course of a metal detecting survey of the fields surrounding Whitehall Farm in the parish of Nether Heyford. A significant spread of coins, pottery and building material on the south eastern slope of a plateau over looking the Weedon Road suggested an extensive area of occupation in the Romano-British period.
Several seasons of metal detecting have enabled a list of nearly a 150 coins to be constructed for the site. The types of coins retrieved are dominated by C3rd and C4th examples, particularly the House of Constantine with the latest examples of coinage being represented by the house of Theodosius which were in circulation post 388 AD. Indeed the range of emperors and coin types represented is very similar to other rural sites located in Northamptonshire and reflects the market based economy involved and the inflationary pressures of the later empire. However a bronze coin of Iron Age date and attributed to the reign of Cunobelin and coins of C2nd emperors like Trajan and Hadrian have also been located. Further important finds have been recovered including fragments of a series of bronze brooches known to be of a C1st to early C2nd date and a small highly decorated pewter bowl which most likely was produced in the C4th AD. The quality and quantity of the finds has provided valuable supportive evidence in the interpretation of the fieldwalked material.
In addition to the metal detecting survey the area was intensively fieldwalked over two seasons (1997 & 1998) by Stephen Young.
A great deal of material dating from the C1st to C4th was discovered and recorded. Analysis of the data revealed coherent scatters of pottery and building material covering an area in excess of two hectares and spread across two fields.The range of finds was indicative of a long lived and intense occupation of the area.
It was also possible to explore settlement shift across the site and gain some understanding of the range of sophisticated buildings erected during the Roman period. Large quantities of ceramic roof and floor tile representing several different fabrics underlined the existence of architecturally complex structures.
Substantial numbers of tesserae were also located although the overall number suggested either that the floors were still intact or had been methodically removed at some unspecifiable post Roman date. Considerable amounts of boxflue associated with underfloor heating and bathing facilities were evident in discreet surface distributions. Pottery sherds representing over 35 different pottery fabrics of local regional and international manufacture were retrieved.
The extended geophysical survey revealed that archaeological features associated with Iron Age and Roman farming estates extend over four/five hectares. It was also possible to dig a trial trench in the field adjacent to the villa in order to investigate elements of the different field system. Excavation revealed the truncated remains of several ditches which confirmed the geophysical findings. Dating these features from material deposits found in the fill may be possible but the possibility of environmental survival for sampling is yet unknown.
The artifactual and structural remains indicated an extensive area of occupation consistent with a Roman villa complex. It also revealed the existence of an ancient agricultural landscape covering a core area of at least five hectares. The diagnostically datable material recovered suggested active occupation of the area from the late Iron Age until the end of the Roman period and possibly even into the early Anglo-Saxon epoch.
The main site includes (in rough chronological order) two roundhouses, a proto-villa, a late Romano-British villa and two bath houses. All except the proto-villa lay within a ditched and banked enclosure of about 2 hectares. The site was continuously occupied for at least 500 years.
Unfortunately extensive destruction of the archaeological stratification has occurred across key structural elements of the site. These disturbances are mainly due to the Victorian robbing and quarrying of building material from the site and the subsequent degradation caused by post medieval agricultural practice. The main villa range is particularly effected in this respect with the surviving elements being severely truncated and denuded. However the associated bath house, field systems and trackways have survived to a far better degree and offer improved prospect of archaeological investigation.

{2} During 1999 limited excavation confirmed the remains of buildings and some of the geophysical anomalies.
The core of the sites is located at SP 649587 on the southeastern side of Stowe Hill where the ground slopes down from the west to the east towards the Grand Union Canal. The Roman settlement and villa is situated about 0.5km east of Watling Street and a similar distance west of the village of Nether Heyford at Whitehall Farm.
Survey has revealed a palimpsest of archaeological features. These features included pit alignments, an extensive inland field system, stock management areas, track ways, small enclosures, round houses and a large banked and ditched enclosure associated with the villa complex. The villa itself is of a winged corridor design with two detached bath houses, the initial one constructed in the late 3rd century which was used until the early 4th century AD before being demolished the other was built in the mid 4th century and continued in use until the mid 5th century AD. An archomagnetic date obtained from a stokehole and associated hypocaust indicated a final firing of the bath house hypocaust in 460AD. All the diagnostically datable material recovered indicates continual occupation of the site from the late Iron Age, through the entire Roman period and on into the early medieval or Post Roman era.
The excavation has revealed that significant areas of the site were heavily robbed in the late 18th to early 19th century and that virtually all of the structural evidence for the main villa range had been removed and was destroyed at this time. Probably much of the remaining building debris was re-used to create an adjacent complex of farm buildings which developed near the site after the enclosure of the land in the 18th century. These structures were subsequently demolished in 1900 to construct the buildings that now comprise part of the modern farm. Indeed this systematic destruction and reuse of building fabric is the single most important factor responsible for the deteriatoration of the archaeological remains and certainly far more influential as a destructive agent than the arable regime operated in the fields during the last three decades.
Apart from the methodological robbing experienced across the main villa range the overall archaeological evidence for the rest of the site indicates an excellent level of stratigraphic survival elsewhere on the settlement. The range of rooms in the second and later bath house are a good example of this where some of the walls survive to eight courses high. The anaerobic conditions engendered by the nearby spring line ensure a good level of environmental potential both from the structures and the wider landscape features. A significant collection of timbers, wooden fragments has survived and the bone assemblage is one of the most interesting from a Romano-British villa site with nearly 30,000 bone assemblage including everything from Hares, fish, birds to wolf, horse and cat. The glass assemblage includes a unique 4th century engraved representation of a gladiator. Whitehall farm has a coin assemblage of 550+ coins and a pottery collection from excavation of 18,000 shards.
Detectorists found and identified several Roman coins, a scatter of Romano-British pottery and building material covering a considerable area.

{4} Geophysical survey indicated an extensive Roman settlement extending beyond the area of survey.

{5} Geophysical survey techniques were carried out in order to locate a probable Roman villa known from fieldwalking evidence. Previous fieldwalking has shown that a Roman building possibly of a villa existed at this site. Substantial quantities of roofing tile, boxflue tile, pottery and tesserae have been recovered. The majority of finds lie to the west of the break of slope into the valley below. Distribution map showing Roman pottery scatter. Further distribution map showing Roman tesserae scatter.

{6} Additional survey identified pit alignments which appear to demarcate possible land boundaries and ditches.

<1> Masters P., 1999, Geophysical Survey at Nether Heyford, Northants, (checked) (Report). SNN63113.

<1> Young S. et al, 2000 (circa), Whitehall Farm Roman Villa and Landscape Project, Fieldwork: Summer Excavation 2000 (part checked) (Website). SNN107418.

<2> Young S. et al, 2000 (circa), Whitehall Farm Roman Villa and Landscape Project, Fieldwork: Fieldwalking (part checked)` (Website). SNN107418.

<2> Young S., 2012, Project Design for Continuation of the Research Excavation & Archaeological Investigation at Whitehall Farm, Stowe Hill, Nether Heyford, Northamptonshire, p.6 (part checked) (Project Design). SNN109244.

<3> Adams, N., Whitehall Roman Villa and Landscape Project, (checked) (Leaflet). SNN107539.

<3> Young S., 2012, Project Design for Continuation of the Research Excavation & Archaeological Investigation at Whitehall Farm, Stowe Hill, Nether Heyford, Northamptonshire, p.5 (part checked) (Project Design). SNN109244.

<4> Masters P., 1999, Geophysical Survey at Nether Heyford, Northants, Section 4 (checked) (Report). SNN63113.

<5> MASTERS P., 2000, Additional Geophysical Survey at Nether Heyford, Northants, Field 1 (checked) (Report). SNN107420.

<6> MASTERS P., 2007, Gradiometer Survey of Land at Whitehall Roman Villa, Nether Heyford, Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN109245.

<7> Pulley S., 2000, A Previously Unrecorded Roman Villa, (unchecked) (Article). SNN106804.

<8> Jacklin H.A., 2003, The Whitehall Farm Roman Burial, Nether Heyford, Northants, (unchecked) (Report). SNN109249.

<9> Curteis M., 2007, Whitehall Farm Roman Villa: Coin Analysis Report, (unchecked) (Report). SNN109247.

<10> Young S., 2011, Whitehall Villa: Romanisation of a Landscape, (unchecked) (Report). SNN109250.

<11> Goodburn D., 2012, The Whitehall Farm Roman Villa Structural Timbers, (unchecked) (Report). SNN109248.

<12> Blinkhorn P.W., 2006, Anglo-Saxon Pottery from the Whitehall Farm Roman Villa, (unchecked) (Report). SNN109246.

<13> MASTERS P., 2002, Geophysical Surveys at Whitehall Farm, Nether Heyford, Northants (Report). SNN102445.

Record last edited

Mar 4 2025 4:57PM