Romano British Village sites in Somersham
(From Transaction sof the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Archaeological Society Volume IV 1905)

About ¾ of a mile to the North west is another village site of larger dimensions covering approximately fifteen acres in three fields – two grass and one arable. It is mainly situated in one of the grass fields locally known as the Camp ground. It is th field in which the letter “C” of Colne Fen is printed in the 6 inch Ordinance Survey map (2nd Edition 1902). Part of the site extends into the grass field to the South west and also into the arable field to the North east which is sometime sknown as Money Hill. Camden’s Britannia mentions a hoard of coins of the later Emperors found on or near this spot in 1731; the late Reverend F.C.Boultbee of Colne found a cremation burial of three urns within 200 yeards of this place. One of these urns a fine ornamented Cator beaker, is now on loan to the Huntingdonshire Museum. In the Cambridge Ethnological Museum are specimens of Somano british pottery which were found in gravel diggings on the north side of the Somersham-Chatteris road exactly opposite this spot. The field containing this disused pit is now an orchard and on the surface are fragments of Barnack stone, Roman roof and hypocaust tiles and pot shards.
The Camp ground although fifteen feet above sea level is separated from the Somersham-Chatteris Road by a narrow strip of low fenland which is often flooded. This low ground continues to the North east until it joins the West Water a ¼ of a mile away. From the edge of this site and towards this low ground run a series of sort ditches which disappear when the low level is reached and resemble docks for small boats. Some have short portions of double width as if to accommodate two boats side by side. These “docks” number twelve and may afford some clue to the population of the village. The main area of the field is a maze of circular pits now represented by hollows, and ditches of various widths. Non eis more than two feet deep and some hardly visible and all appear to have been dug in a haphazard manner. In the centre is a comparatively level space approximately 250 by 90 feet rectangular in shape and surrounded by a ditch. Upon this pace several pits are found, one obviously superimposed, as it cuts into part of the ditch. No banks are visible on or around the site nor is there any trace of the earth dug from the ditches. I have dug into six of the pits. All have been dug down into undisturbed gravel. Two yielded nothing, one the skull and bones of an oxen and three domestic rubbish.
Through the generosity of the late J.P.Pentelow Esq. of Somersham in lending a capable workman, I was able to clear out completely one of these last. The pit was a circle of 20 feet in diameter, sloping down from one foot in depth at the west end to four feet at the east end where the water was found. In my opinion it had been dug as a gravel or rubbish pit and in either case some gravel had been taken out. The section showed a foot of loam containing a few sherds then three to noine inches of clay and under this crumbly black earth containing domestic rubbish and lying in a sharply defined line on undisturbed gravel.
In this black earth the commonest finds were sherds and animal bones – and there were thousands of pieces. Among the rare objects were oyster shells, carbonised wood, burnt clay and stones, a bone pin, round and tapered at each end and part of a twisted wire bracelet. The bones included those of ox, sheep, horse, pig, otter and birds. Even the smallest of the bones were split.
The sherds were mostly of the large corn jars and ollae of very coarse brown ware, sometimes three quarters of an inch thick and often with a crust of carbonised vegetable matter on the inside. Many pieces fitted together and I was able to restore four large ollae. Three of these are of coarse ware and of early iron Age type and are eleven, nine and eight inches high respectively. The other is of finer grey-green ware with wavy line decoration around the neck, but the whole kiln-spoiled with air bubbles. Other restorations include a mortarium of late hammer head type, patterae of black ware and five beakers between three and a half and five inches high. Two of these are globular and one indented – this last a beautiful and almost perfect example.
The finest piece is the upper portion of a narrow necked olla like vessel of good grey-green ware. The neck is ornamented with straight burnished parallel lines in two series, one series crossing the other to form a lattice, the centre section of the vessel being similarly decorated but with closer lines. Castor ware is common a few pieces having white slip ornament. Thee were some fragments of thin red beakers with roulette decoration. Many pieces were traceable to the Hornigsea kilns and show the characteristic combing five or six vertical lines at intervals around the vessel. The mortarium rims show a great range of type apparently from 100 AD to 300 AD. There were a few course tiles with ridges in concentric circles as for adhesion to mortar. The Samian ware fragments are all plain and belong to vessels of the Pudding Pan Rock type. The only potters mark found “SATURNNI” is of middle second century date. Nearly all the sherds were coated with some iron rust.
I have also collected much pottery from the adjoining arable field – Money Hill; including a samian base which has been used as a whetstone and two pieces of debased Roman type. Of these one has a mortarium like rim hollow at the top with wavy line decoration cut into the hollow with a crude tool; the other is a flattish piece with similar decoration deeply cut.
In 1910 or 1911 a mortarium of early date and a black ware pattera were ploughed up in this field both in perfect condition. Inside the pattera at the bottom is an unusual geometric design.
Mr king of the sedgewick Museum, Cambridge kindly examined four specimens of stone from this site and gave his opinion as follows:
1. Rather like Barnack stone probably from Stamford district
2. Rather like Weldon stone, probably from Stamford district
3. Millstone grit from Yorkshire or Derbyshire (part of a quern)
4. Coal measure of Millstone grit sandstone probably from North England (Probably part of a quern)
Less than a mile North of the Camp Ground is yet another Romano british site which has been cut in two by the Somersham – march railway line. This is mainly in the more northerly of the two fields between the two Knobb’s Farms.
Here are the usual ditches and pits and in the arable field to the south are areas of black soil and pottery fragments. Here I found two pieces of thin red mortarium with small pieces of water worn quartz, as found in local gravel let into the grinding surface. This ware is uncommon locally but exactly like some in the Ashmolean Museum and found in a kiln at Sandford, Oxford.
Most of these village sites show similar features. They consist today of a number of irregular ditches and pits dug without apparent plan. They have no earthwork defences and are all near waterways on the edge of the fens and on gravel soil. The pottery shows great similarity. The purpose of the ditches is uncertain; perhaps they were simply for drainage or they may represent a transition from a lake to a land village. The beginning and the end of these villages is also obscure. There is no direct evidence of pre Roman origin, for although much of the pottery is of early Iron Age type, it is all closely associated with that of Roman times. Miss Taylor of Oxford is of the opinion that the Camp ground was occupied from the latter part of the first century but more thickly from the second century onward. The British Museum very kindly gave me approximate dates for a dozen mortarium rims from thye excavated pit. They vary from 100 AD to 350 AD. This suggests a late occupation as does a coin of Valens (368 AD to 378 AD) found in a field at Somersham east of Colne road and 500 yards south of the railway. The two pieces of debased Roman pottery may suggest a continuation of occupation into Saxon times as they can be compared to pottery believed to have been made in that dark first century of the Saxon conquest, by Britons for their Saxon masters.
The people inhabiting these villages would seem to have been fishermen and hunters using small boats kept in artificial docks or slipways. They kept domestic animals and lived in huts of perishable materials. They used tools of iron, bone and even flint. They occasionally ate oysters from the coast and they ground their corn in querns from the North of Briton. They used fine pottery from the works of Gaul and at castor but most of their cooking pots were of course thick material made locally in traditional shapes.