Bourne in Roman times

The Roman occupation from 43 AD until the early 5th century was probably the greatest single influence on Britain in the past 2,000 years. It is from this period that our history in Bourne really begins because we have little knowledge of a settlement here before they came. 

Roman Britain was occupied but not colonised. New technology, especially communications systems, and new administrative machinery and personnel were introduced but native settlement patterns and customs were largely left unaltered. Pockets of Iron Age culture persisted in the Welland valley but few people can have been left completely untouched by the way of life which the invaders brought with them.

The strength of Roman culture varied from settlement to settlement and while some seem to have been fully romanised with buildings of an advanced style and imported luxury goods such as fine pottery and glass, others were only lightly affected. 

The region was inhabited by the British tribe known as the Coritani whose territory included the modern counties of Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and probably Derbyshire and the southern parts of Yorkshire. It may well be that a small agricultural community of this tribe had already been settled around the springs at Bourne when the Romans reached the area but it is only after the Roman conquest that we have firm archaeological evidence of settlement. 

The Emperor Claudius ordered the invasion of Britain in 43 AD and it was in 47 AD that the 9th Roman Legion had advanced northwards as far as Lincoln to establish in due course one of the four towns in Roman Britain with the rank of Colonia, that is a town of Roman citizens. The main Roman road approaching Lincoln from the south was Ermine Street, running through Durobrivae (Waternewton, near what is now Castor), Great Casterton and Ancaster. To the east of Ermine Street, another road ran from south to north. This was King Street. Its route is still quite clearly identified, to the north of Castor, by the straight modern road running past Helpston (half a mile to the east), over the bridges at Lolham, through West Deeping to Kate's Bridge. From there it continued to Bourne, though probably not always along the line of the modern Bourne to Peterborough road. For instance, it cut through what is now Elsea Wood north of Thurlby and seems to have run directly from there to the centre of Bourne. Running northwards from Bourne, it divided into two branches. 

One of these ran due north, and can still be traced along the route of Mareham Lane that continues along the fen edge to Sleaford. The other branch, more recently investigated and harder to identify on the ground, was perhaps the more important of the two. Its course can be seen on the one inch Ordnance Survey map of the district. It ran north westward from Bourne, passing to the west of Hanthorpe and Stainfield, to the east of Lenton and Ropsley, and joined Ermine Street just south of Ancaster. With these lines of communication thus running through the area, Bourne in Roman times was probably a small settlement or posting station on King Street.

Evidence of this Roman settlement has appeared from time to time during the past 200 years. In 1776, pieces of tessellated Roman pavement were found at Park Farm together with a hoard of Roman coins. In 1808, an urn and gold coins of from the reigns of Nero, Constantine, and Maximian II, were located near the site of Bourne Castle. A local historian of the early nineteenth century, W Marrat, in his History of Lincolnshire (1816), claimed that in Home Close, at the south end of the town, there had been a square, singled ditched entrenchment and that in 1810, a Roman copper coin was dug up there. About fifty years later, while the railway was being built to serve Bourne, portions of tessellated floors, further Roman coins, and pottery came to light in the same area while the British Museum has a small bronze figure of a horse, classified as Roman in origin, and found in Bourne.

Further Roman coins were discovered at Bourne Grammar School while excavations for new buildings were being made in 1959. The earliest was a coin of Julia Domud, wife of Severus, dated 193-211 AD. There was an imitation radiate coin in copper, minted about 300 AD. Another coin was of Constantine I, minted at Londinium, 320-24 AD, while a fourth was of Caesar Augustus, 340-50 AD.

Then in the autumn of 1970, during excavations for a swimming pool at the grammar school, numerous fragments of pottery were found. These included a monarium, or Roman mixing-bowl, of circa 80-110 AD, part of a pie-dish, a cooking-pot and other pieces from the later half of the second century. There was also some very coarse fabric native ware, imitating Roman forms, some Nene Valley colour-coated ware, probably 180-320 AD, some second century Samian ware made at Lezoux in central Gaul with a British copy of the same and some large storage vessels. These, together with the kiln and other finds of 1959 on the same site, constitute the most significant discovery of Roman remains made in Bourne in recent years.

Other Roman remains found at Bourne have consisted mainly of pottery. This is the best known of the industries of Roman Britain and although important centres like Castor and the New Forest produced quite different wares on a large scale, it is probable that a host of local potters were at work supplying the market. Remains of Roman pottery have been found along the Car Dyke and in 1905, near the school in Abbey Road, a builder discovered a Roman kiln. The heaps of blue clay on the site were not of local Oxford clay and it has been suggested that they may have been brought to Bourne by boat along the Car Dyke itself. Another kiln of the Roman period was discovered in 1959 during the grammar school excavations and from the firing chamber of this kiln, fragments of five earthenware jars were retrieved and it has been possible to reconstruct these vessels. Various other pieces of pottery were found, as well as charcoal which would be used for heating the kiln. 

Two objects, thought to have been candlesticks, were retrieved from the entrance to the firing chamber. There was also a metal article, not quite complete, which has been classified as some kind of spoon. Not far away on the same site, during further excavations in 1964, a small earthenware bowl was removed from the soil intact. Thus it is clear that Roman Bourne was being supplied with at least some of its pottery and earthenware from local manufacturers. On the other hand, the discovery in the grammar school excavations of some pieces of reddish-brown Samian ware shows that pottery from abroad, probably from Gaul or Belgium, was reaching Bourne, as indeed it reached all parts of Roman Britain. If Bourne had yielded none of the ubiquitous Samian ware, it would have been unique as a Roman site.

Signs of Roman settlement at Bourne are still most likely below the surface. In the 1970s, a shard of grey ware, coarse tessarae of tile and stone, and a roofing tile were found. A more unusual discovery, by a local amateur archaeologist, was a glass tear bottle in the garden of a house in Mill Drove, about 500 yards west of the Car Dyke, which is perhaps the best known of all the Roman remains in the Bourne area and its history is dealt with elsewhere.

In June 2004, archaeologists worked ahead of the builders on an £80,000 extension to the Willoughby School in South Road and several discoveries were made, as anticipated because the site is only a short distance from Bourne Grammar School, scene of previous Roman finds. They unearthed human remains, the bones of a cow and several examples of good quality pottery which indicated a high status settlement. They included more Samian ware and Nene Valley folded beakers which was dated to the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. "We believe that Bourne was actually a small Roman town", said project manager Mark Williams. "This is because we have the Car Dyke and the Roman road running through the vicinity to King Street." The most exciting find was the skeletons of three adults, all intact and lying close together. "Obviously they were Romans living nearby and their grave may indicate a family unit", said Mr Williams.

In January 2005, the remains of four more Roman bodies were found on the Willoughby School site bringing the total to 15. All of the bones were sent away for scientific analysis and the site was blessed by the Bishop of Grantham, the Rt Rev Alastair Redfern, and the Vicar of Bourne, the Rev Christopher Atkinson. Head teacher Adam Booker said: "We now have evidence of 2,000 years of our history and we hope to use most of the remains in a permanent display." The Rotary Club of Bourne has contributed £250 to make such an exhibition possible.

This however is speculation because there is no conclusive evidence about the size and exact nature of the settlement. It may have been the site of a posting station which grew up on King Street and might well have included a changing station or mutatio where horses could be changed and perhaps a rest-house or mansio where official travellers could find lodging for the night. Whether there was any kind of a Roman military camp here is a matter of speculation. Nor is it by any means certain that the tessellated pavement discovered in 1776 was part of a Roman villa. In fact, villas were not very numerous in this area. There was doubtless some agriculture carried on by the local inhabitants to the east of Bourne with corn growing on the reclaimed part of the fens and on the higher ground to the west, perhaps some cattle and sheep rearing where there were breaks in the woodland which probably extended over the area at that time. There may have been a few local tradesmen of various kinds and it certainly appears that some industry existed in the potteries, already described, but any more precise description of Bourne during the Roman period will depend on further research.

NOTE: This article has been compiled with the help of edited extracts from  A History of Bourne (December 1976) 
by kind permission of the author J D Birkbeck.

REVISED SEPTEMBER 2005

See also     The Car Dyke     Archaeology     The pottery industry

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