Roman Defended Sites at Kirmington, S. Humberside and Farnsfield, Notts., Recently Found from the Air

Extract

Air reconnaissance of the county south and south-west of the Humber has recently resulted in the discovery of two defended sites of Roman date. At Kirmington, South Humberside (TA 097113), photographs taken in the dry summers of 1974–6 (PL. XIV A) have gradually enabled the outlines to be drawn of a complex pattern of cropmarks (FIG. I ), the most prominent of which show the north-western angle of the double ditches of a large four-sided enclosure. The eastern and southern sides can only be traced with difficulty, and the south-eastern corner lies under the perimeter-track of the wartime airfield; but enough can be seen to indicate that the area within the ditches covered c. 8½ acres (3·5 ha). The double ditches, which are sufficiently large and regular to be described as defences, occupy part of an area covered by the irregularly planned roads and enclosures of a settlement. The roads are shown by negative (light-coloured) cropmarks, some of which apparently cross the defences in various places, while positive (dark-coloured) marks show the ditches of many small enclosures of different shapes and sizes. The drawing greatly understates the complications of these enclosure-ditches, which were probably many times recut to judge from the frequent indistinct marks on the photographs, too faint to be planned with confidence.