Chesterton Settlement

Chesterton Settlement or Chesterton On Fosse A small trapezoidal enclosure of c.3.2ha. with impressive ramparts, lying on the Fosse Way in farmland, to the north-east of its crossing with a tributary stream of the River Avon.

The greater part of the enclosure lies on the south-east side of the Fosse Way. The north and south sides of the enclosure lie parallel to the road whilst the east side is at right-angles to it. The western side is not aligned with the road but with the stream, which flows in a south-north direction immediately to the west of the enclosure.

Sections through the defences showed that the original undated turf rampart was replaced by a stone wall c.2.74 metres wide at its base, fronted by at least one ditch (possibly two), and a counterscarp bank, by the first half of the fourth century.

The settlement was occupied from the second century through to the fourth, with some extra-mural occupation of unrecorded extent suggested by a surface scatter of Roman material in the fields around the enclosure.

There is a villa about two miles to the north of the defended enclosure at Radford Semele (SP3462). Roman pottery and a surface scatter of tesserae have been reported at Ewe Field Farm, just over one mile to the south-east; signs of a substantial Roman building.

There is a single Latin inscription recorded in the R.I.B. for the Chesterton area, a fragment of a lead ‘defixio’ or curse tablet found in 1922 within the Roman fort and now in the Warwickshire Museum. The text and a tentative translation is given below.

References for Chesterton On Fosse

• Roadside Settlements of Lowland Roman Britain by Roger Finch Smith (B.A.R. British Series #157, 1987) pp.288/9;
• The Roman Inscriptions of Britain by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright (Oxford 1965).

Map References for Chesterton On Fosse

NGRef: SP341598 OSMap: LR151

Roman Roads near Chesterton On Fosse

Fosse Way: NNE (21) to Venonis Fosse Way: SSW (8) to Ettington