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Some Observations on the Economy of the Roman Villa at Bignor, Sussex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

S. Applebaum
S. Applebaum
Affiliation:
Department of Classics, University of Tel Aviv
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Extract

The following examination of the agricultural aspects of Bignor Roman villa was written in 1950, and is here reproduced with a few additions, and with corrections necessitated by the results of Professor S. S. Frere's excavations at the villa in the years 1957–1962.

It is very likely that Lysons, who excavated the villa in the eighteenth century, did not find, or did not record, earlier farm-buildings which may well have preceded those to be seen on his plan. Nor may he have noticed various details or subdivisions of the latter. Nevertheless it seemed worthwhile attempting their analysis in order to resuscitate the general lines of the agriculture practised at Bignor in the fourth century; and while further excavation of the farmyard, if it takes place, will doubtless produce corrections and new facts, the attempt will have been justified if it suggests new considerations and methods. Some of the conclusions of the present study were included in much abbreviated form in the writer's contribution on Roman Britain to The Agrarian History of England, Vol. I, part ii, published in 1972.

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Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 6 , November 1975 , pp. 118 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © S. Applebaum 1975. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

* The Agrarian History of England, ed. Finberg, H. P. R., i, part ii (Cambridge 1972), 212–14.Google Scholar

1 The numbers are according to Herbert's plan, MS Notes on the Roman Villa at Bignor, in the Haverfield Library, Oxford (and see FIG. I). For help in collecting the necessary local information for the present paper, the writer is indebted to Mr. T. Bertram, formerly of Bignor Manor, and Mr. T. Tupper Jr. of Bignor.

2 op. cit., 44.

3 H. H. Sumner, Excavations at East Grimstead, Wiltshire, 1924, pp. 35–6.

4 Report of the Sevenoaks Society, 1928, p. 5.

5 F. Fremersdorf, Römische Gutshof Köln-Müngersdorf, 1933, Building VII and p. 120.

6 Building L: Corder, P., Kirk, J. L., The Roman Villa at Langton (Roman Malton and District Report 4), 1932, 55.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., 120, 137.

8 Ibid., 120.

9 Antiquity, i (1927), 148 ff.; fig. 2.Google Scholar

10 Romeinsche Villa's in Belgie, 1937, 92 and fig. 21b.

11 Fremersdorf, op. cit. (note 5), 119.

12 Arch. Journ. lxvi, 1909, 33 ff.; Room 26. Columella (i, 6) provides that a stall for two oxen measures between 8 ft. 9 in. and 9 ft. 8 in. width. In the Iron Age hut as Soljberg, Denmark, the average width of accommodation per beast was 4 ft. 7 in. (Memoires de la Société royale des Antiquariens du nord, 1928, p. 189). Stalls in the Roman villa at Gerpinnes, Belgium, provided accommodation of 4 ft. 5 in.—5 ft. 10 in. per head; at the Graux villa in the same country, 4 ft. 2 in. (de Maeyer, op. cit. (note 10), 85 fig. 20a; 57, fig. 6). See further, S. Applebaum; in H. P. R. Finberg, Agrarian History of England and Wales, i, part ii, chap. ix.Google Scholar

13 op. cit. (note 1), 17.

14 Grenier, A, Manuel d'archéologie préhistorique, celtique et gallo-romaine, vi (1934), ii, p. 853.Google Scholar

15 J. Peate, The Welsh House (2nd ed., 1944), ch. iv, pp. 51 ff.

16 Paret, , Hartlein, , Goezler, , Die Römer in Württemburg, iii (1932) 34, fig. 8, v; Gerpinnes, loc. cit. (note 12).Google Scholar

17 Archaeologia xviii, 1817, 113.Google Scholar

18 Archaeologia xviii, 1817, 117 ff.Google Scholar

19 Arch. Journ. xiii (1856), 328 ff.Google Scholar

20 R. E. M. and T. V. Wheeler, Verulamium, A Belgic and Two Roman Cities (1936), pl. xxxi and p. 101.

21 VCH Kent, iii, 117, No. 28—Building K.

22 Bonner Jahrbücher 101 (1897), 80–Building J.Google Scholar

23 VCH Sussex, iii, 24, No. 5.

24 Winbolt and Herbert, The Roman Villa at Bignor (1930), 18.

25 J. Perceval, Wheat in Great Britain (1948), 42, 51.

26 Radford, C. A. R. in Oxoniensia i (1936), 54, amending Lennard in Economic History, Feb. 1936.Google Scholar

27 The disease does not survive if the soil is left uncropped for a number of years. Oats are not affected (Watson and More, Agriculture (9th ed. 1949), 184), which suggests one of the possible origins of a three-course agriculture. The lower chalk, however, is a slow-drying ‘late’ soil, not favouring a spring crop. The presence of Alopecurus suggests that the tract had been hay meadow for some time prior to present cultivation (cf. Tansley, The British Isles and their vegetation (1939), 562).

28 de re rustica ii, 12, 7.

29 op. cit., ii, 13.

30 Parain, C. in The Cambridge Economic History, i (1942), 129.Google Scholar

31 The figure of 292 work-days a year is derived from the calculations of Dickson, The Husbandry of the Ancients, 1798, p. 62. White, K. D. (Antiquity xxxix, 1965, p. 102) adopts Columella ii, 12, 8–9 at 250 days of work.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 C.S. and C. S. Orwin, The Open Fields (1938), 36.

33 Trans. Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch. Soc. lxiv (1943), 169.Google Scholar

34 ii. 13.

35 A. Longnon, B. E. C. Guérard, La Polyptique de l'Abbaye Irminon, 1886–1895, 117, —XIII, I.

36 Cf.Pliny, , Nat. Hist, xviii, 19Google Scholar; Columella, , de re rustica ii, 4.Google Scholar

37 Longnon, op. cit. (note 35), 114.

38 B. E. C. Guérard, La polyptique de St. Remy de Reims, 1853, Préface, p. xxxii, and text passim.

39 Longnon, op. cit. (note 35), 114.

40 ii, 13.

41 Parain, loc. cit. (note 30), 142.

42 Columella de re rustica ii, 10, 22–24. Columella fully realized its utility as a cleaning crop. A turnip-seed has been found at Pevensey in a Roman context (Sussex Arch. Coll. lii (1909), 194), and possibly at Silchester (Reading Museum). Columella (ibid.) like Pliny (Nat. Hist, xviii, 192) further knew that the turnip required ample manuring. The general similarity of Roman agriculture in northern Gaul and Britain, and the common racial derivation of the population of each, make the utilization of turnip in Britain very probable.Google Scholar

43 S. Applebaum in H. P. R. Finberg, The Agrarian History of England (1972), i, part ii, 115–116; 212–214.

44 Sussex Arch. Coll. lix (1918), 58.Google Scholar

45 Ordnance Survey, Map of Celtic Earthworks on Salisbury Plain, 1934, Introduction.

46 Proc. Hampshire Field Club xiv (1940), 143.Google Scholar

47 ibid. For criticism of the view of the pastoral function of covered ways and the travelling earthworks associated with them, see now Fowler, Musty and Taylor in Wilts. Arch. Mag. (1965), 52 ff.; Taylor, , Antiquity xli (1967), 304–306CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for a further discussion, Applebaum, op. cit. (note 43), 232–4.

48 Herbert, op. cit. (note I), 9.

49 ii, 11, 16.

50 ii, 15.

51 Ibid.

52 i, 13.

53 Mr. L. F. Salzman, who read this paper, expressed his doubts as to the use of human manure at Bignor. Naturally, certainty on this point is almost impossible; I can only refer to the insistence of Varro and Columella on its use, which was very natural in an agriculture where manureshortage was a vital and recurring problem. It is in any case to be assumed that part of this manure reached the fields one way or another; the question is how far is was systematically conserved and spread.

54 ii, 13.

55 The Husbandry of the Ancients (1798), i, 289.

56 Dairy Cattle and Milk Production (3rd ed. 1948), 481, Table 68.

57 Columella, ii, 15.

58 That the vehes was as light as this is perhaps confirmed by the mosaic at Romain-en-Gaul (Rostovtzeff, Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (1926), pl. xxxvi) where (second column from the right, second panel from the bottom) workers are seen carrying manure on a stretcher. That such stretchers were used in temperate countries is shown by a model of one found with other miniature agricultural tools at Rodenkirchen, Cologne (late fourth century)—Bonner Jahrb. 149 (1949), 98, Abb. 2, 26 and 30; cf. p. 99. The writer can testify from personal experience to the gruelling character of this labour.Google Scholar

59 Formerly twelve to fifteen tons of farmyard manure were regarded as essential to one acre of wheat: Perceval, op. cit. (note 25), 32. But Dr. E. W. Russell, to whom I am grateful for assistance on this and other points, tells me that one ton per acre is sufficient to raise yields considerably by its phosphate content.

60 Not ‘slightly more in favour of a two-crop system,’ as I wrote in Ag. Hist. Eng., i, part ii, 214.

61 Sussex Arch. Coll. lvii (1915), 146.Google Scholar

62 Winbolt, cited by Herbert, op. cit. (note 1) 9–10.

63 Ibid.

64 M. A. Lower, A compendious History of Sussex (1870), ii, 193.

65 Sussex Notes and Queries xiii (1950), 87.Google Scholar

66 VCH Sussex i, 424.

67 Winbolt and Herbert, op. cit. (note 24), 18.

68 Ibid.; Herbert, op. cit. (note 1), 63.

69 JRS xlvii (1957), 223; xlix (1959) p. 131; 1 (1960), p. 234; lii (1962), p. 189.Google Scholar

70 Iuga—CIL viii, 10570, iii, 6.Google Scholar

71 Agriculture lxiv (1957), 39.Google Scholar

72 Trans. Dorset NH and Arch. Soc. lxxxiv (1962), 101.Google Scholar

73 Wilts. Arch. Mag. lviii (1963), 328.Google Scholar

74 Ample traces of native fields exist farther south at Nore Hill, Eartham (VCH Sussex iii, 49; Sussex Arch. Coll. lxxvii (1936), 265–74). Romano-British occupation is recorded on Westburton Hill east of Egg Bottom (H. Allcroft, Downland Pathways (1924), 243).Google Scholar

75 According to M. A. Lower (op. cit. (note 64) i, 51), Roman pottery has been found ‘within the church’ at Sutton; the same writer (ibid.) records the local tradition that Bignor village originally stood where the villa was afterwards found.

76 Eg. Passy and Auteuil—Grenier, op. cit. (note 14), vi, ii, 919; Julian, Revue des études anciennes, 1928, 139–51; 1930, 133-38; Revue de France, 1928, 2, pp. 541 ff.; cf. Rev. et. anc. 1924, 227–29.

77 Ag. Hist. Eng., I, part ii, p. 24 and n. 2; cf. p. 253.

78 loc. cit. (note 77); cf. E. Eckwall, Studies in English Place-names (1936), 84–5; Mawer and Stenton, Place-names of Sussex (1929), i, sv. Ambersham; R. G. Roberts, Place-names of Sussex (1914), 4 sv. Amberley.

79 Nennius, Hist. Britonum, 31. The date according to Dr. J. Morris's chronology, ‘Dark Age Dates’, in Jarrett and Dobson, Britain and Rome: Essays presented to Eric Birley (1965), 145 ff.

80 Eckwall, Oxford Concise Dictionary of English Place-names (ed. 2, 1940), ad voc.

81 J. Morris, The Age of Arthur (1973), 100.

82 Cf. Morris, op. cit. (note 81), 97, on the resources needed to support British resistance to the Saxons: ‘Any well-stocked estate might send a few bold raiders on a single expedition, but a war that lasted a generation required ample lands.…In Britain such resources were to hand in the Cotswold country from Dorset to Gloucester, in Salisbury Plain and in Hampshire…landlords could still raise forces among their tenants.’