Monument record HTC 013 - The Plains Farm (Rom)

Scatter : coins brooches, found with metal detector in ploughsoil. Also large quantities of Roman tile and a few tesserae found fieldwalking suggest villa or significant building.
10 coins, date range Antoninus Pius to AD 341. 2 brooches (Colchester II and III La Tene III).
Large group of Roman finds found with a metal detector in ploughsoil. These include 4 silver coins (3 of Septimus Severus AD 193-211 & 1 of Antoninus Pius AD 147-161), just possibly a scattered hoard; 129 bronze coins, Vespasian through to the 340s. Several brooches and other pieces of metalwork, pottery (Samian, Nene Valley and shell-gritted); roofing tiles and box tiles (including unusual tegulae with combed under surfaces). Possible traces of bronze working (S1).
2005: metal detecting, fieldwalking and geophysics surveys - summary in (S2).
(N.B. For full list of artefacts see Arttype)

2005: Geophysical survey (magnetometry and resistance) has defined part of a rectilinear enclosure, possible curvilinear features and probable building areas on fields where Roman material has been discovered previously. Systematic metal detecting and fieldwalking survey showed good correlation with the geophysics results. Large quantities of Roman tile and a few tesserae indicate that the complex is likely to be a villa. The date range of the finds suggests activity from the 1st to 4th centuries, but perhaps stopping in the middle of the 4th century. Fieldwork will continue in 2006 as part of a lottery funded Local Heritage Initiative project (S3).

2006: Six trenches were excavated by volunteers from the Hitcham community, supervised by the Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, in the second phase of this Local Heritage Initiative-funded project. The trenches were positioned to answer specific questions arising from the geophysical, metal-detecting and fieldwalking surveys carried out in the first phase, which had identified possible structures, a ditched enclosure and other features (see ‘Archaeology in Suffolk 2005’).
Of the six trenches, two were placed within a pasture field and the remaining four within a cultivated field. These trenches confirmed the presence of two Roman buildings and the presence of enclosure ditches and an intense area of Roman activity, including ditches and pits, away from the buildings on the south edge of the site (Fig. 8).
Trench 2, in the pasture field, revealed a probable bathhouse indicated by east-west and north-south flint-and-mortar walls, the presence of subterranean mortar and fired clay surfaces and extensive deposits of charcoal-rich sands. That there had been alterations to the structure during its life was evidenced by the presence of in situ fragments of flint and mortar wall fabric sealed beneath the later surfaces. Square pads of mortar on these surfaces suggest the former presence of hypocaust pilae but this could not be confirmed. The area clearly identified as being within the building covered up to 50sq m on the eastern side of the trench, but the area excavated was too limited to enable interpretation of the functions of the room(s) identified or to be certain that the other area was outside the building. Extensive post-use robbing of the fabric of the bathhouse could be seen with a number of large robbing pits that cut through walls and surfaces and contained substantial amounts of building rubble. However whilst indicating that this was a masonry building with a tiled roof and some painted plaster on the walls, the rubble material was so mixed that it was not possible to speculate, from this small excavation, about the decorative schemes in individual rooms.
Trench 4, in the ploughed field, uncovered the northern end of a second domestic building surviving under the ploughsoil as a single course of unbonded flints, the surviving remnants of probable footings for a timber-framed structure. These walls represent the north-western corner of a rectangular building, almost certainly the main house. Using the combination of excavation and geophysical evidence it was probably in the region of 15m x 20-25m and perhaps a small corridor-type villa layout. Both the buildings were at the northern, elevated end of the fields, but at the bottom of the slope Trench 3 uncovered pits and ditches all apparently contemporary with the use of the villa. This has been tentatively interpreted as lower status domestic occupation, possibly that of the servants and estate workers. Of the remaining three trenches, Trench 5 confirmed the presence of a pair of northwest-southeast aligned parallel ditches that had been suggested by the geophysical survey; these may have been part of a rectilinear enclosure surrounding the main villa complex. Trench 6, on the top of the hill, north of Trench 4, contained no features and may have been outside the villa enclosure. Trench 1, situated within the enclosure, roughly between the bathhouse and the villa, was also relatively empty and may have been in the area of the villa gardens. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2006 (S4). Full report to follow.