News - Calls to protect 'rare' Roman Southwell

A university lecturer is calling for the rejection of a plan to build houses next to the site of a Roman settlement in Nottinghamshire.

Caunton Properties Ltd, who were unavailable for comment, want to create 29 homes on Church Street in Southwell.

Dr Will Bowden said the discovery of "rare" archaeological remains dating to the 7th or 8th Century made the site "wholly inappropriate" for development.

Newark and Sherwood District Council will consider the plan after 28 June.

The site is next to a scheduled monument - potentially one of the largest Roman villas in the UK, according to the University of Nottingham lecturer.

An investigation of the area the planning application covers found a Roman wall and archaeological remains.

'Incredibly rare'

English Heritage recommended that a substantial part of the redevelopment should remain as green space, with any remains preserved.

Dr Bowden and a number of academics, including the director of the Association for Roman Archaeology, Bryn Walters, and Revd Prof Martin Henig of Oxford University, said the English Heritage judgement does not go far enough.

"The discovery of remains, of probably Christian inhabitants, dating to the late 7th or 8th Century on the development site represents the period between the Roman villa and Minster," Dr Bowden said.

"Having this continual sequence of occupation - the villa, the burials and the Minster - is incredibly rare and arguably unique for a Roman villa in the UK."

He added: "There is something very unusual going on at Southwell, and it is potentially of a rarity that would make its partial excavation in a development context wholly inappropriate."

The academics have joined with several local history societies in an attempt to mobilise a mass campaign in support for keeping the remains in place.

Members of Southwell Town Council unanimously agreed to object to the plans and the council chairman Mr Roger Dobson called for residents to join the Save Roman Southwell campaign.

Campaigners would like to see the development site included in the town's central heritage area which includes the Minster, the Archbishop's palace and the villa itself.

"We can develop a strategy for researching and using the site to bring Roman Southwell to life for the citizens of Nottinghamshire," said Dr Bowden.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-13083692

News - Experts urge Roman remains protection (Southwell)

Development is being put ahead of archaeological research on the site of Roman remains, according to experts.

A symposium of archaeological experts spoke to more than 250 people at Southwell Methodist Church yesterday about the importance of the remains on the former site of the Minster School.

Rev Dr Martin Henig, of Oxford University; Mr Bryn Walters, director of the Association For Roman Archaeology; archaeologist to Southwell Minster Professor Philip Dixon; and Dr Will Bowden, of Nottingham University; discussed the importance of the site, which has plans for 31 homes.

The event was organised by Southwell Heritage Trust, Southwell Community Archaeology Group, Southwell Local History Society and Southwell Civic Society to raise awareness of the importance of the issue before the planning application is considered by Newark and Sherwood District Council.

Dr Bowden said the symposium agreed it was everyone’s responsibility to protect the site for future generations.

He said: “It is a site of unique and national significance.

“If you get a small Roman farmstead being destroyed in the course of development it doesn’t matter too much because we have got thousands of those, but we have only got one of these. This is the only opportunity we have so we cannot mess it up.

“History will judge us very poorly if development goes ahead. In years to come people will look back on this episode and think: ‘What on earth were they doing.’”

Dr Bowden said there was still a lot that could be discovered from the site.

He said: “It’s the whole assembly of villa and minster and whatever goes between that. We don’t know what that was because the only confirmed thing we have in between are 7th Century bodies. They might be all over the place but we don’t know that because we have only the evidence we have found so far.”

Dr Bowden said that it would be better for the remains to be reburied, instead of development taking place.

He said: “If it was to be buried completely it would be sad but defendable, but with this, it won’t be buried completely. Parts will be excavated and parts will be simply watched as trenches are dug for building foundations.”

He said because so little was known about the site, it would be hard for archaeologists to say what was significant without looking at the site as a whole.

Dr Bowden said groups in the town were facing an uphill struggle against the development.

He said: “One of the problems is that English Heritage has accepted the principle of development. They accepted this in 2002. The situation has changed since then. We now know that there would be significant archaeological implications of the development.”

 

From: http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/articles/news/Experts-urge-Roman-remains-protection