Monument record 895 - Bannaventa

Whilton Lodge (Bannaventa) is one of the 14 nucleated settlements incorporated within the current survey that acted as local or regional centres in the Roman period. Located roughly midway between Towcester (Lactodurum) and Caves Inn (Tripontium), Whilton is probably one of the larger small towns (c.16-22ha) and probably acted as a local market centre along Watling Street, one of the province’s prime arterial roads. Limited early observation and rescue excavations between 1970-92 in the north eastern quarter of the town indicate that it may have developed in the mid to late first century AD around a road junction along Watling Street close to a crossing of the river Nene, possibly close to a pre-conquest site of unknown form. Like a number of the Nene valley towns Whilton may have owed its existence to the strategic significance of its location on the road network and to the wealth of its surrounding agricultural landscapes. Whilton’s layout may derive from initial ribbon development along Watling Street around the road junction linked to local considerations of access to the surrounding agricultural landscape. Seemingly extensively occupied by the second century AD, the developed plan of the settlement is still not well understood. A limited but nevertheless significant amount can be said about the town’s historical development close to Watling Street and the later defended core but far less so elsewhere. Watling Street and a series of neighbouring land boundaries perpendicular to it seem to have been laid out in the mid-first century AD. During the late first to early second century these boundaries were formalised and the first recorded building, a round house, was constructed. During the course of the mid-second and third centuries further timber buildings, this time of rectangular sill beam construction, were constructed in the northeastern part of the town probably some way away from the main road frontages. This period may also have seen the construction of stone buildings towards the southern and northern fringes of the settlement noted during earlier observations on the town. During the second or early third century Whilton was also provided with a defensive circuit of ditch and earthen rampart enclosing approximately 5ha of the core of the town around the road junction. This was later slighted and replaced by a double ditch and wall on broadly the same ground plan in the later third or fourth century. The southern fringes of the town in the late first – third centuries may have been marked by a cemetery close to Watling Street, noted in nineteenth century observations of building work alongside the present Norton road. Little else, however, is known about religious and burial activity within the town. Clearly occupied up to the end of the fourth century the town is not known to have survived in any recognisable form into the Early-Middle Saxon period. Finds of early-middle Saxon pottery and a middle Saxon coin, however, may indicate that activity of some form continued beyond the Roman period.

{2} Bannaventa, SP 612645, mentioned in Atonine Itinerary. Identification of the site disputed until early 20th century. Weedon Dec and Daventry suggested alternatives. Finds of Roman material noted in 1712, 1822-30, and 1853 confirmed the location. Further finds and observations of a building in 1900, 1st and 2nd coins and rubbish pits including Nene Valley type barbotine decorated beakers revealed by test excavation in 1955. [RCHM plan].

{5} Bannaventa located 12 miles north of Lactodorum; this location is mentioned in 3 of Antonine Itineraries.

{6} Location mentioned in 3 of Antonine Itineraries.

{7} Summary given of early conflict over location of town.

{11, 16} A section cut across the north-west perimeter in 1970-71 showed the earliest defences to have been post 1st century consisting of a ditch 25 feet wide by 10 feet deep, apparently backed by a clay and turf rampart whose existence is inferred from material in the upper filling of the ditch. Probably early in the 4th century the ditch was filled and a stone wall some 12 feet thick built. This wall has been entirely robbed; all that remains being scraps of mortar in a robber trench which has itself been partly destroyed by modern ploughing.

Beyond the wall lay two further ditches some 17 feet wide by 8 feet deep and 14 feet wide by 6 feet deep respectively, both apparently becoming disused in or after the late 4th century. The ditch nearest the town wall seems to have been filled intentionally with gravel, perhaps to enable the addition of bastions to the wall. The site had been much damaged by bulldozing, and ploughing, but investigations in the interior revealed a 1st century circular structure, a well over 24 feet deep which had been filled in late in the Roman period and large numbers of stake and post-holes indicative of buildings. One building had pink plaster imitating marble, but no traces of stone structures were found, and the dearth of items of personal adornment gives the impression of a relatively poor community with a continuity of occupation from pre-Roman times.

Finds include a pre-Tasciovanus British coin, Roman coins mainly of the 4th century, two brooches and a small amount of Samian ware.

Discoveries outside the defences included a hearth, occasional post-holes, a cobbled area and an extensive area of ditches interpreted as stockade ditches similar to examples found at Tripontium. A series of ditches extending in date from pre-Roman times to the 2nd century was also found within the walled area.

{13} Plan of excavations of 1970-2.

{18} Evidence for craft production and the study of trade is almost entirely absent at Whilton. Within the area of the rescue excavations, however, the absence of published syntheses of the all the artefactual evidence, currently limits what can be said. This and the absence of systematic field walking over any other part of the settlement mean that there is virtually no artefactual or structural evidence upon which to base study.

Currently, therefore, though it is likely that the main road line was defined and enclosures laid out during the first century it is impossible to be sure from the small excavated areas whether the site was already developing into a larger nucleated settlement. No buildings are known after this date from the excavated areas and currently no stone buildings have been positively identified.

{24} Extensive significant problems; arable ploughing.

{28} For further details, see Map Diagram.

{29} "…..there is also positive evidence of a stone wall, but this has almost all been removed by stone robbers. I am not sure if one could state that Bannaventa is a walled settlement or a Constantinian burgus….."

{30} Illustration of defences 19, 83-6, 89, 102.

<1> Ryland, W, Adkins, D, and Serjeantson, R M, 1902, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.186-87 (unchecked) (Series). SNN100368.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.150-152 (checked) (Series). SNN77381.

<3> Baker G., 1830, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.423 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77327.

<4> Proceedings of The Society of Antiquaries (Series 2), 325 (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN60835.

<5> ANTONINE ITINERARY, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN48535.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP66SW1 (part checked) (Index). SNN443.

<7> Edgar W., 1923, Borough Hill & Its History, (unchecked) (Book). SNN47010.

<8> Brown, A E (ed), 1972, Bulletin of the Northamptonshire Federation of Archaeological Societies, 27-29 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN58344.

<9> Rowley R.T.; Fowler W.J. (Editors), 1972, CBA Group 9 Newsletter: South Midlands Archaeology (2), 9 (unchecked) (Newsletter). SNN10022.

<10> 1972, Archaeological Excavations (Various Years), p.21-22 (unchecked) (Series). SNN55389.

<11> 1972, Britannia, 3/325 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN47361.

<12> Wilson D.R., 1973, Roman Britain in 1972, 296 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN19515.

<13> 1971, WEST MIDLANDS ANNUAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWSHEET, 14 (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN48584.

<14> 1971, THE DAILY MAIL, (unchecked) (Article). SNN54988.

<15> 1971, The Chronicle and Echo, (unchecked) (Article). SNN60856.

<16> Rugby School Natural History Group, 1971, Rugby School Natural History Society, 14 (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN60857.

<17> 1974, Correspondence, (unchecked) (Correspondence). SNN60858.

<18> Taylor, J, 2000, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Whilton\Bannaventa (Roman), Section 3.1 Communications (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100750.

<19> Brindle, T., 2008, Northamptonshire (Draft), (unchecked) (Chapter). SNN106263.

<20> Morton R., 1998, Land Adjacent To Ryehill Farm, Long Buckby, Northamptonshire, Archaeological Assessment, (checked) (Report). SNN100014.

<22> Butler A., 2007, Geophysical survey at 'Bannaventa', Whilton Lodge, Northamptonshire April 2006, (unchecked) (Report). SNN108025.

<23> CLASP, 2005-12, CLASP (Community Landscape and Archaeology Survey Project) Newsletter, (unchecked) (Newsletter). SNN108402.

<24> Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk: East Midlands Register 2016, p. 51 (Report). SNN110747.

<25> Historic England, 2017, Heritage at Risk: East Midlands Register 2017, p. 58 (Report). SNN111090.

<25> Historic England, 2018, Heritage at Risk: East Midlands Register 2018, p. 58 (Report). SNN111434.

<26> Young, S. & Kay, F., 2019, Geophysical survey of hinterland fields adjacent to Watling Street to the North West of the Posting Station of Bannaventa, Norton, Northamptonshire (Report). SNN111380.

<27> Munn, D, 2022, Report by Dale Munn (MSc) on human skull at Bannaventa (Whilton Locks, Daventry, Northamptonshire) (Report). SNN113644.

<28> Seaman, BH, 1969, Field investigators comments, Ordnance Survey archaeology field investigator BHS 21-FEB-69 (Notes). SNN111907.

<29> Historic England, Unknown, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments, Letter Graham Webster 15.4.75 (Oral Report). SNN111577.

<30> Crickmore, J, 1984, Romano-British Urban Defences (Book). SNN116179.

<31> RCHME, Undated, RCHME Inventory: Northamptonshire II (Central), 889666 (Archive). SNN112900.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 8:50PM