Roman 43-410 AD – The Roman Villa
It’s hardly surprising with Deanshanger’s proximity to the major Roman Road of Watling Street a villa was uncovered in 1957 whilst building the secondary school. Two further excavations of the site were undertaken in 1972 during the extension of the playing field and in 2005 before laying the artificial football pitch. An earlier Deanshanger excavation before 1940 found pottery, floor tiles, wall-plaster, tesserae, glass and animal bones but the records are poor and their location could be another site, now lost, or from the known villa uncovered in 1957.
A local archaeological group undertook an emergency excavation of the Roman Villa in 1957 and identified it as a farmstead of the 1st century conforming to a 'classic villa' style. A stone-built corridor about 30m by 15m and a further group of other buildings that combined to form a courtyard of 75m by 60m. The latter contained a stone-lined pond and evidence of fencing was found. The site was badly damaged but a number of floors were recognised and finds included samian and coarseware pottery, stone, ash, wall-plaster and coins of Constantine and Valens. A silver denarius of Sallustia Barbia Orbiana was found on the site in 1963.
More detailed excavations in 1972 to the east of the 1957 dig revealed ditches and gullies containing early Roman pottery, domestic refuse and 1st-century brooches. Other recorded features included three 3rd-century circular structures, between 5m and 12m in diameter, paddocks and compounds, a pond, a T-shaped corn-drying oven, a metal-working hearth and a large barn about 13m by 21m. The most notable find being an unusual highly decorated brooch with a rich orange enamel centre panel that measures about 44mm in length (1¾ inches).
In 2005 the dig area was extended and a quern stone was uncovered (used to grind cereal crops e.g. corn, maize to make flour) along with pottery, coins from the roman and post medieval eras, animal bones and more oyster shells.
Sources:http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/northants/vol4/pp41-42 [accessed January 2018], Wolverton and District Archaeological & Historical Society. Newsletter, 6 (1961), Northants. Architecture and Archaeolgocical Society Reports, (1960–6), DOE Arch. Excavations 1972; Northants Archaeology, 9 (1974), Milton Keynes Journal of Archaeology and History, 3 (1974); OS Record Cards)
