JOHN MOOREHERITAGE SERVICES - Archaeology Data Service

John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES Cobrey Farm, Ross on Wye, Herefordshire
An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment
settlement has been identified in the area of Bury Hill (the hill with the fortification)
and Bromsash (the earliest known hundred name). The name ARICONIO is recorded
in the Antonine Itinerary XIII (Rivet and Smith 1979, 257-8). The name is associated
with that of Archenfield an area on the west of the River Wye (Coplestone-Crow
1989).
Horseley (1732, iii.468) was the first antiquarian to claim that Ariconium lay in the
vicinity of Ross-on-Wye. A description of c. 1750 described the location of extensive
walls and roads covered with dense thickets (Bull 1882, 249-50). The camp at Bury
Hill is marked on Taylor’s Map of 1754. In 1785 Hopkins Meyrick provided
information on this Roman station (Fosbrooke 1821, 22-38; Bull 1882, 249-50), he
had carried out ploughing on the site and disturbed vast quantities of stone, a
description of a building is given along with other walls and tesserae finds. The finds
included building fragments, tufa blocks and arches, a vault, statues, urns, finger and
earrings, broaches, and Roman coins. The iron slag spreads were extremely extensive
and early descriptions are of a site covering 20 acres. Among the early descriptions is
that of a large cast bronze head with ram’s horns that was melted down, but must
have been part of a cult statue. In 1788 a description of Diana is recorded as being
recovered from the Roman town (Bevan and Haverfield 1896, 13). In 1804 the
remains of a further impressive building was described, perhaps a temple, around
which human burials were described (RCHME 1932, 209). The first synthesis of the
site occurred in 1844 (Jack 1922, Additional 1-44, 36-37). The earliest discoveries at
Weston-under-Penyard were from random finds.
The British Archaeological Society visited the site and observed the collections of
finds in 1870 (Palmer and Hills 1871, 203-18). Their field walking first determined
that the site covered 100 acres. The locations included Bollitree, Upper and Lower
Hask Fields, Cinder Hill, and Bury Hill. It was also noted at this time that there was
probably an Iron-Age predecessor to the site. The vast majority of coins came from
Upper Hask Field, suggestive of a temple site or at least a market area.
The first systematic excavations carried out on the site took place in 1922 when six
locations were investigated (Jack 1922 Additional 1-44, 1-53). These identified the
remains of a substantial building with tufa masonry and cinder deposits. In 1928
cropmarks were observed that marked the road layout of the town, on investigation
these were constructed of slag deposits (Watkins 1928, 228-31). A second synthesis
of the site was produced by the RCHME (1932, 209). In 1932 the remains of a cinder
road was identified running towards the Forest of Dean (Watkins 1932, 184-91). In
1955 a trench was cut across a Roman road in Wig Meadow (Cohen 1955, 66-72). In
1963 excavations were carried out on bloomer slags of the settlement (Bridgewater
1965, 124-35). Further excavations have commenced on the site that show that the
later Roman layers have been truncated by ploughing. In 1995 excavations took place
on the line of the Ryeford bypass, some 1km from the Weston site, which identified
the remains of a road with various structures and cobbled surfaces built along the
road (White 1994, 47-8, 1995, 45). These excavations show that considerable
activity, either sporadic satellite settlement, or more likely Roman cemetery activity
continues for some distance along the line of the Roman roads outside this extensive
Iron-Age to Roman settlement.
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