contd....... Curiously, this layer did not contain the sorts of finds that we might expect on former agricultural land, such as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century potsherds or pieces of clay tobacco pipe. However, sherds of Romano-British pottery did start to appear towards the bottom of this layer. One was a piece from a Much Hadham type grey ware jar and the other from the neck of an orange ware flagon, both typically Roman in date. At last we had confirmation of the discoveries of 1955! Towards the end of the second day, a new deposit turned up in this trench, underneath the subsoil. It was a mixture of small chalk pebbles and clay, which had clearly been deliberately laid. With Romano-British pottery on top of it, it was likely also to be Roman in date and a yard surface (or perhaps the floor of an agricultural building, such as a barn).
3 Caslon Way On the opposite side of the road, at 3 Caslon Way, things were very different at the start. Here, the topsoil was very shallow and clayey. What was different about this soil was that instead of containing uniquely modern material, small pieces of what may have been Romano-British eggshell ware coated with a cream or red slip were found. The clay did contain some large coarse inclusions, which would be unusual in an eggshell ware, which was usually a very fine type of pottery; none of the sherds was noticeably curved, either, which was worrying, as eggshell wares were typically used to make small drinking cups and the like. These finds will need expert analysis to confirm that they are indeed Roman. Underneath this topsoil was the usual, virtually sterile yellowish subsoil. However, it did contain definitely Romano-British pottery: a sherd with a gritty interior surface was found, which would have been part of a mortarium, a bowl used for grinding food to a paste (the Roman equivalent of a food processor). We did not reach the bottom of this layer, so we do not know if anything lay below. What it does show us, though, is that the Roman site extended across more than fifty metres, either side of the present Caslon Way. Romans on the Grange Estate The test pits have confirmed Albert Clarke's discoveries in 1955. We did not doubt that he had discovered Romano-British material, but needed to know the context in which it was found, which was not clear from his note. What we now know is that it came from a site with made surfaces (whether this was an external surface or the floor of a building we cannot yet say), which extended over at least fifty metres in a north to south direction and which lay on the top of a low ridge. This is signficiant because there are similar sites in and around the Garden City, at High Avenue, Fairfield Park, Church Lane and so on, which all seem to have been visibe from each other, all established in the first century AD and all farming hamlets. They were probably one of the main suppliers of foodstuffs to the nearby growing Roman town of Baldock; given their apparently planned locations in the landscape, they may even have been set up by the town council at Baldock. Finding out more Albert Clarke's note can be found on the Group's website at http://www.nortoncommarch.com/crbst_63.html, together with his sketch plan of the discoveries. The work we did in February is on the blog (but please note that it has a new address, http://nortoncommarch.wordpress.com/2008/02). For more information about Roman Baldock and the surrounding area, Ancient Baldock: the story of an Iron Age and Roman town by Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews and Gil Burleigh is available from local bookshops. Next year, Keith and Bahkti Fitzpatrick-Matthews will be publishing a book on the archaeology of Letchworth Garden City, which will include more details about Caslon Way and other Roman sites in the town. *****************
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