More information : (SK909170) Romano-British Settlement (R) (site of). (1)
A RB settlement, mainly in the area of 'Black Holmes' and 'Black Wang' with a cemetery in the quarry 'Kirk Hole'. Earlier finds consisting of coins, pottery and personal objects, were made in 1740 and excavations were carried out in 1884. A Roman well was discovered some time before 1779. (Plan in VCH, p 89 shows these fields to be centred at SK910171, 908170 and 905172 respectively, agreeing with OS siting.) (2)
More recent excavations by E Greenfield on behalf of MPBW from 1956 onwards in quarry no 5 (908170) (3) of Stewart and Lloyds of Market Overton, have revealed a number of stone buildings including a temple, along with many coin hoards, domestic and personal objects and inhumation burials. Iron age pottery and Coritanian coins reveal continuous occupation from pre-Roman times and it continues into the Early Medieval period. Three phases of building were revealed in the temple site (in Black Holme Field): the first was a 1st century wooden shrine (rebuilt more than once), the second, a temple lasting until the late 3rd century, and the third a large basilical temple, of true 'Greek' type. (a) It lasted from just before 50 AD until C255 AD. A rectangular aisled building of a domestic nature lasting until late 4th or 5th century followed. (3-9)
Clear marks of a Roman Villa sited at SK909 170 on St Joseph APs. (10)
The sites of the temple and the adjacent corridor building are located at SK90931713, and SK90961713. All the fields are under crop and no perambulation was possible. Odd coins are in the possession of various locals and Mr H. Mossop of Marshchapel,Lincs, has many. (11)
An area of intensive occupation has long been known at Thistleton from finds of coins, pottery, brooches etc. A few houses, wells, kilns, many ovens and hearths, and burials suggest that the site may have been an industrial or agricultural centre. A religious-cum-commercial significance is suggested by the discovery of a temple site with a temenos ditch enclosing a large area, in the centre of which stood several successive temples. A 1st century circular gulley round a limestone floor marks the site of a wooden building rebuilt more than once. It was replaced by a circular structure 41 feet in diameter with stone walls and a crushed stone floor on which stood a cement statue or altar base. In the 2nd century a tessellated floor was inserted, and in the late 3rd century a large basilican temple was constructed on the same site, solidly built of limestone slabs, and porched and divided inside into a nave and side aisles. A series of small holes were dug in the nave to below the level of the round shrine, two containing a silver
feather and an inscribed silver plaque, both of votive type. At some time the temple was converted to domestic use and the floor was raised with rubble which contained building stones and roof tiles, implying destruction of the superstructure of the temple. This occupation lasted until the late 4th or early 5th century. Brooches, 235 coins and other bronze oddments have been recovered from the area.
Air photographs show a long hall within the temenos reminiscent of the subsidiary buildings at Pagans Hill. (12)
The temple, villa and temenos ditch (described by authorities 3-12) were seen as cropmarks on good quality air photographs. The foundations of the basilican temple are 24m long (including the porch) and approximately 14m wide. It is subdivided into a nave and aisles and is more accurately located at SK 9091 1718. To the east of this temple is a possible corridor villa, seen as three parallel foundations, with the walls 10m and 6m apart. It is more accurately
located at SK 9095 1717.
These two buildings are situated in the centre of a ditch-defined enclosure (probably a temenos ditch as described by authority 12).
Only three sides of this enclosure could be identified on available photography. It is approximately 80m wide. On either side of the north east corner of the enclosure (at SK 9098 1720) are five small (1-4m) round pits, probably Roman in date but of unknown function.
(Morph No. LI.796.7.1 - 7.3, 796.8.1)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
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