Heritage Strategy - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

stockton-on-Tees <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Strategy</strong>
• Round Hill Castle, Ingleby Barwick.
• Larberry Pasture Settlement Site, Longnewton.
• Newsham Deserted Medieval Village.
• Barwick Medieval Village.
• Market Cross, <strong>Stockton</strong>.
• Yarm Bridge, Yarm.
The Borough has approximately 1,841 recorded
archaeological sites and findspots. Tees Archaeology has
also directed a number of archaeological excavations
throughout the Borough. A selection of the most
impressive and significant ones are detailed below.
ingleby barwick – bronze age cemetery
A number of graves were excavated which revealed various
burial practices within this Bronze Age Cemetery and
required Tees Archaeology and Durham University to
undertake some highly technical procedures in order to
fully understand the finds and skeletons.
One of the most significant burials was of a woman who
was buried wearing copper jewellery, including plain and
ribbed copper bangles, 41 tubular beads, 25 jet buttons
and 79 very small jet beads.
Due to the wintry conditions, the female’s torso was
removed in one block and excavated in a laboratory at
Durham University. In order to achieve this, the torso had
to be frozen solid with dry ice, lifted, x-rayed and
transported to the University. This reveals how challenging
and delicate archaeological excavation can be in order to
obtain as much information as possible from the
archaeological record.
Quarry Farm roman Villa, ingleby
barwick
The remains of what is thought to be the most northerly
surviving Roman villa in the Empire have been partly
excavated at Ingleby Barwick. Enclosures showing as marks
in ripening cereal crops were first identified from aerial
photographs taken in 1970. However, it was not until 2000
when a geophysical survey undertaken by Archaeological
Services University of Durham, indicated the presence of at
least three stone founded buildings.
The site was then partly excavated by Durham University in
2003. Evidence was found for both circular and rectangular
buildings. The rectangular buildings probably represented
the homes and farmstead of a wealthy family of
‘Romanised Britons’. One of these buildings had an
underfloor heating system. Adjacent to the villa there was
evidence of an extensive field system and further buildings
including a circular horse mill for grinding the corn grown
on the estate, a well built barn/workshop and numerous
corn driers. The local aristocrats who owned the site
probably had close links with the Roman military and may
have acted as their local representatives. The site was
probably valued for its position on the River Tees where
traffic and trade could easily be controlled.
Thorpe Thewles iron age settlement
This archaeological excavation took place in the early 1980s
and provided a substantial amount of information about
Ingleby Barwick Skeleton
Ingleby Barwick Excavation
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