Roman Rural Landscape at Kempsford Quarry, Gloucestershire

An area of 6 ha just east of Kempsford was examined in 2000-2001 in advance of gravel extraction. The earliest features belonged to a field system defined by ditches probably dug in the late Iron Age. This was replaced in the early Roman period by a very regular layout of trackways linking field systems to settlements lying just outside the excavated area, all part of a programme of radical landscape reorganisation in the wider region. The nearby settlements probably went out of use in the 3rd century, but the fields probably remained in use for pasture. The main trackway was re-established in the later Roman period and a substantial timber stockade built alongside it. Occasional human and animal burials made both in the fields and at trackway junctions are an interesting aspect of the use of this landscape.