Excavations Alongside Roman Ermin Street, Gloustershire and Wiltshire: The Archaeology of the A419/A417 Swindon to Gloucester Road Scheme

The Oxford Archaeological Unit undertook a series of excavations along the line of the Swindon to Gloucester DBFO road improvement in 1996 and 1997. The road ran between Nettleton in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds and Cricklade on the Thames in Wiltshire, following the course of Roman Ermin Street for a significant part of its length. Around 35 sites of different types and periods were examined. These included two adjoining Bronze Age ring ditches, middle Iron Age settlements, late Iron Age enclosures, a Roman settlement, and a mediaeval kitchen block. There were also a number of discoveries relating particularly to Roman Ermin Street. These included a probable roadside funerary monument and trackway at Field’s Farm, Roman trackway ditches and quarries, and part of a late Roman midden. Ermin Street itself was examined with seven trenches through the Roman and later roads. Important environmental evidence was obtained, and a programme of radiocarbon dating undertaken, both in relation to the environmental sequences and the earlier prehistoric and Iron Age sites.