Monument record MDO2502 - Romano-British occupation, Coker's Frome, Stinsford

A scatter of surface finds including pieces of pottery and building materials suggesting Roman settlement in the vicinity. These finds include part of the upper stone of a rotary quern, possibly re-used as a whetstone.

(Centred at 69829146). In the SE corner of an arable field north of farm buildings at Coker's Frome, amongst a wide scatter of small fragments of tegula and imbrex tiles, an abraded sherd of plain Samian base (SY 69799141), a sherd of New Forest ware (69809147) and a wedge shaped fragment of upper stone of an RB rotary quern (69829146) of Wealden sandstone were found. (1)

Old and extensive foundations were still traceable in the mid-19th century about a furlong west of the spot where an interment (SY 79 SW 29) was discovered south of Slyar's Lane in 1841. (If the location of the interment at SY 703915 is correct, the building remains could very well be associated with the finds recorded by Williams). (2)

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1973, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1972, 87 (Serial). SDO72.

‘SOME SURFACE FINDS IN SOUTH DORSET … (d) A Romano-British occupation site in Stinsford parish. The following finds were made in 1971 in the S.E. corner of an arable field north of farm buildings at Coker’s Frome amongst a wide scatter of small fragments of tegula and imbrex tiles:-
(i) Abraded sherd of plain Samian base of form Drag. 18/31 at SY 69799141.
(ii) Sherd of New Forest thumb-pot rim at 69809147.
(iii) Wedge-shaped fragment of upper stone of rotary quern of Romano-British type at 69829146. Thickness at circumference 2.1 ins., diminishing to 1.5 in. at 7 ins. from the edge. The surfaces of the top and edge are pecked. The grinding surface not only shows signs of concentric striations, but a smooth zone about 0.75 in. wide running across them, bearing heavy rust marking. Deposits of this rust also lie in peck-marks adjacent to this band. Probably this fragment had a secondary use as a whetstone. Identified by Messrs. J. F. Cowley and M. R. B. Bone of County Hall as Wealden sandstone.
Roman burials in the vicinity, alongside the supposed Roman road from Stinsford to Stratton, by-passing the Roman town of Durnovaria, are recorded in R.C.H.M., Dorset, II, part 3, p. 541. …’

<2> 1887, The Gentleman's Magazine, 55-56 (Serial). SDO20260.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 2000, Annual Report (Monograph). SDO16555.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453471 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 8 2023 2:58PM