Monument record MDO8670 - Mill Plain, Christchurch; possible Romano-British cremation and settlement

Mill Plain lies on the south-east side of Lower Close and is bounded by Mill Road, Fairmile Road and the railway. Bronze Age knives arrowheads and pottery as well as Iron age pottery and brooch have also been found. Many thousands of Romano-British pottery sherds and other artefacts including coins, quern, brooch and an urn containing a cremation have all been discovered in the gravel working site. The geology in the area consists of Terrace 2 or Terrace 4.

Mill Plain lies on the south-east side of Lower Close and is bounded by Mill Road, Fairmile Road and the railway. Gravel was worked here intermittently between 1909 and 1934; most of the finds being in the Druitt collection. These show evidence of occupation during the Bronze Age and of a small settlement occupation including many thousands of RB pottery fragments. Palaeolithic - 96 hand axes (Acheulian) Mesolithic - microliths, two flint picks, two transverse arrow-heads. Monument Periods And Types - (1-2)

The Romano-British finds include an urn containing an adult male cremation, upright in a 5ft deep pit; many other sherds including Samian and New Forest wares; a bronze terret; brooch; rotary querns; and coins of Faustina, Commodus (180-192 AD) and Magnentius (c.353 AD). A 'bannock' of partly carbonised vegetable matter is also recorded. The area is now built over (1).

<1> Calkin, J B, Catalogue of Herbert Druitt's Collection of Local Prehistoric and R-B Antiquities (Index). SWX3966.

<2> Woodhouse, W C, Various, Field Investigators Comments WCW, F2 WCW 15-JUL-54 (Unpublished document). SWX3798.

Record last edited

Aug 5 2024 2:59PM