Tollgate Farm: Update
Dr Vivien Swan, probably the UK's leading Roman pottery expert, spent a day looking at some of the pottery from the more important contexts from Tollgate Farm. Not only did she give us lots of dating evidence, she also treated us to an insight into the history behind the pottery and its production and distribution.
Perhaps the most exciting point was when Vivien realised that we must have a pottery kiln on site. She was sure that a potter trained at Wilderspool (Warrington) had been instrumental in the pottery production. This would have been in the Hadrianic period (122 – 140 A.D) and he was making lots of Wilderspool forms using the local clay.
It is now clear that Tollgate Farm was a site of intense Romano-British activity from the last quarter of the first century to the first quarter of the third century A.D. There may have been interruptions when the site was abandoned or periods of lower activity. The important events seem to be:
- The building of the known Roman road and our off shoot in the 1st century;
- The backfilling of the offshoot road ditches (and also the ditch under the beam slot) in the second quarter of the 2nd century;
- The filling of the deep pits in the 1st quarter of the third century.
Winston Hollins, 20th March 2006
