206 



THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 



century BC to 1st century AD and late Romano- 

 British - 4th to 5th century AD. 



PHASE 1: IRON AGE TO EARLY 

 ROMAN 



The later Iron Age and early Romano-British 

 activity is confined to Area 1 where a cluster of 

 storage-type pits, flanking ditches for an east to west 

 aligned trackway and other features indicative of 

 settlement during this period were identified. 



The probable trackway in Area 1 is represented 

 by two east-west aligned flanking drainage ditches. 

 Based on the number of recuts present within the 

 excavated profile and the date of the pottery 

 recovered, it is likely that the trackway was utilised 

 for an extended period. The ceramic evidence 

 suggests that the trackway was originally in use at 

 around the same time as the other Iron Age features 

 on the site, indeed the cluster of storage pits (see 

 below and Figure 3) appear to have been 

 deliberately positioned just to the south of its 

 ditches. The trackway was seemingly finally 

 abandoned during the early Romano-British period. 



At Area 1 Brickley Lane (Poore et al. 2002) a 

 trackway of similar form and alignment was 

 investigated, with the dating evidence also indicating 

 a similar timespan.The Brickley Lane trackway was 

 also located adjacent to evidence for later Iron Age 

 settlement. 



The storage pits at Wayside Farm are unlikely 

 to have comprised the totality of the settlement 

 evidence, and it can be assumed that further activity 

 related to these features must lie close by, probably 

 either to the north or west. Deposits of similar date, 

 type and character were also identified at Area 1 

 Brickley Lane (Poore er al. this volume), but the 

 distance involved (approximately 800m to the 

 north) might indicate that the sites at Wayside Farm 

 and Brickley Lane are unlikely to be part of the 

 same complex. Nevertheless, useful comparisons 

 on the layout and function at both sites can be made. 

 At Wayside Farm, the cluster of storage pits in the 

 northeast corner of the site suggests a defined 

 functional zone, with different activities taking place 

 in separate areas of the site. This was also the case 

 in Area 1 at Brickley Lane (Poore et al. 2002, Figure 

 3), where a pit group of similar type and function 

 was located immediately to the west of the main 

 penannular structure. The pits at both sites 

 produced similar types of plant and mineralised 

 remains. Cereals comprised spelt wheat, hulled 

 barley and emmer which are commonly found on 



sites of this date throughout southern England. 

 Mineralised remains included the finding of 

 Brassica/Sinapis sp from pits on both sites, which 

 can be used as a spice and for their oil (see 

 Carruthers, above). Only small quantities of animal 

 bone were recovered from Iron Age deposits at 

 Wayside Farm, although this does not necessarily 

 suggest that domestic animals played only minor 

 role in the economy, as further evidence associated 

 with this site still awaits discovery. The identifiable 

 pieces at Wayside Farm consist entirely of sheep or 

 goat and although the quantity of bone recovered 

 was far greater at Brickley Lane Area 1 , where the 

 assemblage is again dominated by these species. 



Other feature types of this phase at Wayside 

 Farm included possible drainage gully (F3091), 

 some small pits of indeterminate function and a 

 number of post holes. With the latter feature type 

 no structural pattern could be defined. 



The later Iron Age features, artefacts and 

 environmental evidence from Wayside Farm 

 suggests that the site is on the eastern or southern 

 fringes of a small, almost certainly unenclosed 

 farmstead, with the limited evidence indicating that 

 the site's economy may have been based on mixed 

 farming. This has also been suggested for the Iron 

 Age deposits at Area 1, Brickley Lane, perhaps 

 indicating that the pattern of settlement within the 

 area at this time was for such small-scale units, 

 possibly linked by a network of rural trackways. 



PHASE 2 : LATER ROMANO- 

 BRITISH 



Romano-British deposits and artefacts formed the 

 bulk of the material recovered from the site. Analysis 

 of this evidence has identified a date for this phase 

 of activity towards the end of the Roman period in 

 Britain - late 4th century into the early 5th century. 

 Despite the non-identification of a structure of 

 this date on the site, the demonstrably very late 

 Romano-British date for the main period of activity 

 at Wayside Farm indicates that the site fits in to 

 part of a growing pattern in Wiltshire and 

 neighbouring areas of western Britain (Corney pers. 

 comm.) and is therefore of some importance. 

 Recent work indicates that there is clearly a 

 considerable amount of late Roman activity in the 

 region, but the sites have yet to be investigated by 

 formal excavation, or using modern archaeological 

 techniques. Wayside Farm is located only 5km south 

 of the discovery of a hoard of 5th-century bronze 

 coins associated with bullion, bronze vessels and a 



