Villas and Camps

There is little visible evidence of early settlement in the parish, although the name 'Barrow End' applied to the area immediately north-west of Lyneham village, suggests prehistoric activity there. Roman coins have been found near the site of Bradenstoke Priory and a hoard of Constantinian coins appeared at an unlocated area in the parish. An extended skeleton of unknown date was found near West Preston Farm.

Alternatively, Lyneham Camp, a motte-and-bailey earthwork of possibly Norman date, lies in the north of the parish by Hillocks Wood. Further evidence at Clack Mount, a Norman earthwork, rises on the Corallian ridge at its highest point behind Bradenstoke Abbey Farm.

Roman Wiltshire
These is no reason to imagine any sudden or great change in the manners or customs of the bulk of the people as a consequence of the Roman occupation. There is no break in continuity in many cases the local villages founded in pre-Roman times were inhabited throughout the Roman period and it is possible to trace, by means of pottery and other objects, a gradual transition from pre-Roman to Roman types.

Wiltshire seems to have had a considerable population in Roman times, but no sites are known that could be described as large or important towns. Except for the working of iron ores in the neighbourhood of Heddington the people were no doubt almost entirely engaged in agriculture. The chalk downs, now the most thinly populated areas, were then largely under cultivation and comparatively thickly populated; this is shown by the numerous village sites and the large area bearing traces of the field system in use, a system that divided up the arable land into small rectangular fields, the outlines of which are still clearly marked by banks on the downs that have not been ploughed in modern times. These banks are sometimes known as lynchets, and those of the rectangular type as “Celtic” lynchets, because it is thought that this field system was introduced into Britain by the Celts and used by them until superseded by the Saxons in the 5th and 6th centuries AD.

The villagers seem to have been prosperous and to have adopted, to some extent at least, the manners and customs of their rulers, as the abundant sherds of Romanised and imported wares, hypocausts, flue tiles and so on, bear witness.

On the other hand, tesserae, i.e., stones of inlaid pavements, and painted wall plaster are usually only found on villa sites, though Hoare, who "dug into" many of these villages, says “On some of the highest of our downs I have found stuccoed and painted walls, as well as hypocausts, introduced within the rude settlements of the Britons”

Towns
Sites of larger settlements or towns on main roads, and therefore probably of Roman foundation, are known at Mildenhall near Marlborough (Cunctio), at Wans House on the road from Cunctio to Bath, at Wanborough near Swindon on the Ermine Street, and on the Fossway where it crosses the Avon in the parish of Easton Grey.

Attempts have been made to identify the site at Wans House with the Verluclo of the Roman Itineries, the Wanborough site with Nidum (there is a Nythe Farm there), and that on the Fossway with Mutuantonis, but these identifications are doubtful.

At Old Sarum, the reputed site of Sorbiodunum, a few fragments of painted wall plaster, tiles, coins, and a few other small objects were found during excavation of the site of the mediaeval town and castle, but the Roman remains were so scanty that it has been suggested that the Roman settlement may not have been at Old Sarum itself, but further to the west near Stratford-sub-Castle.

Villas.
The sites of twenty-three Roman "villas" are known in the county, and there are twelve other sites that may be those of villas.

A glance at a map of Roman Wiltshire shows that nearly all the villages were located on the downs, but the villas were in the valleys, or at least in well-watered and sheltered situations, and usually within moderate distance of a main road.

Some neighbourhoods seem to have been more favoured than others; there was quite a group of villas round about "Verlucio", and again round Box, but this latter neighbourhood was no doubt chosen on account of its being near Bath.

A certain amount of digging has been done on various villa sites in the county, but none has been very thoroughly or carefully examined. A fine pavement was uncovered in 1729 on the site of the large villa in Littlecot Park, near Ramsbury and unfortunately destroyed; it was described as "40 foot long and 20 wide", and as the "finest pavement that the sun ever shone upon in England".

Several fine pavements were found in 1786, at the villa at Pitmead, near Warminster (parish of Sutton Veny); these also seem to have been mostly destroyed. Large villas at West Park (Bromham), and at Box, have been partially excavated at different times and tesselated pavements found, and covered up again.

Roman tesserae, tile fragments and pottery sherds were found at Tockenham and a possible villa was suggested. The site has been subject to investigation by the Channel 4 Time Team in 1994 and was confirmed as being a villa with associated structures, probably dating from the 2nd to 4th centuries.

Barrows
Scarcely anyone has even motored through Wiltshire can have failed to notice the many mounds, or barrows, strewn in every direction over the Downs. These barrows are ancient burial mounds, and it may have been noticed that while the great majority are round others are long-shaped mounds; this difference in form is not accidental, but has been proved to mean a real difference in age and origin.

The long barrows are the earliest burial places known in Wiltshire, and are generally regarded as having been erected at the latter end of the so-called Stone Age, before the use of metals was known in Britain.

The round barrows, about twenty times more numerous than the long ones, are later in date with a few exceptions belong to the Bronze Age.

Camps
Though Wiltshire abounds in earthworks, it cannot boast a single camp of Roman military type. The reason for this is not really known, but it may be that the conquest of this part of the country was quickly and easily accomplished, and that subsequent cultivation has destroyed all traces of any there may once have been. It has been suggested that the earthwork on Marlborough Common is the remnant of a Roman camp, but this has not been proved.

There is an interesting earthwork with a very Roman aspect at the foot of the downs north of Barbury Camp; it was partly excavated in 1886, when the foundations of a wall, Samian and other pottery, and a coin of Tetricus the Elder were found. It is not a "camp", though it has been called one, but very probably protected "farm settlement", and to be compared with that on Rockbourne Down, Hants, also enclosed within a bank and ditch, excavated described and illustrated by Heywood Sumner in the book Excavations of Rockbourne Down, 1914 by Chiswick Press.