The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust
Historic Environment Record
 

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Wyndcliff, Porthcasseg

Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 02975g
Trust : Glamorgan Gwent
Community : St Arvans
Unitary authority : Monmouthshire
NGR : ST5276697583
Site Type (preferred type first) : Iron Age enclosure / Roman Villa

Summary :
Roman building, almost certainly a villa, lying within a curvilinear ditched enclosure at the edge of the cliff above the River Wye close to the Eagle’s Nest viewpoint.Remains on the ground are reported in the late 19th century as being ‘double walls...with a distance of about 5 ft between them, extend[ing] 70 yards’ to where it disappeared in dense undergrowth (Anon, 1893) . These are no longer visible, and it is not certain exactly where they were seen. A series of finds indicating a substantial Roman building have been made, including a carved stone roof finial similar to one from Llantwit Major (Nash Williams 1928, 266). More recently a series of metal detector finds have been made, including part of a bronze statue (Trett and Hudson 1993). Boon (1973, 44) surmised that this site was a temple, probably because of the location on a waterless hilltop.The site is an Iron Age enclosure succeeded in the Roman period by a masonry building or buildings, probably a villa. The finds which have been made indicate that it was a high-status site, but continuing metal detecting is likely to cause considerable damage to a site which is otherwise likely, given the absence of ploughing, to be relatively well-preserved. (Evans 2001)

Description :
The best evidence for the nature of the site comes from two air photographs taken in 1996 by John Sorrel. These show a rectangular block bounded on each of the long sides by a corridor; the central section is at least twice as wide as the corridors, and a cross-wall towards the south end marks off a well-defined room at this end. There is probably a corresponding wall towards the north end giving a total of three rooms, but this is less clear. A curvilinear ditch lies close to the north side, sweeping round to enclose the hilltop.
APs in Central Registry collection also examined, but without further results: the geological features show up but there is no clear evidence of the archaeological features, except for the ditch which shows well on OS 75 285. It is however clear that the bank and ditch which show to the W of the Roman building on Sorrel's longer-ranging and more oblique photo are a fairly recent filed boundary and not an outer enclosure. It is possible that the rectangular building may be showing as a low mound on OS 70.060 frame 229; also two small pale oval patches just to E of enclosure ditch at ST530977 and ST530978, but they are too indistinct to be certain whether they do represent features.

Roman building, almost certainly a villa, lying within a curvilinear ditched enclosure at the edge of the cliff above the River Wye close to the Eagles Nest viewpoint.Remains on the ground are reported in the late 19th century as being double walls...with a distance of about 5 ft between them, extend[ing] 70 yards to where it disappeared in dense undergrowth (Anon, 1893) . These are no longer visible, and it is not certain exactly where they were seen. A series of finds indicating a substantial Roman building have been made, including a carved stone roof finial similar to one from Llantwit Major (Nash Williams 1928, 266). More recently a series of metal detector finds have been made, including part of a bronze statue (Trett and Hudson 1993). Boon (1973, 44) surmised that this site was a temple, probably because of the location on a waterless hilltop.The site is an Iron Age enclosure succeeded in the Roman period by a masonry building or buildings, probably a villa. The finds which have been made indicate that it was a high-status site, but continuing metal detecting is likely to cause considerable damage to a site which is otherwise likely, given the absence of ploughing, to be relatively well-preserved. (Evans 2001)

Examination of this site was hampered by the fact that the bedrock lies just below the surface over most of the survey area. Since the main objective at this site was to determine whether there were additional buildings to the one seen by air photography, resistivity alone was tried initially with the aim that, if good resolution could be obtained from this technique, it would be possible to survey a larger area than would be possible if both techniques were used. However, the initial results showed that good resolution was obtained only over what appeared to be the area of deeper soil, and the information provided did not differ greatly from that obtained from the air photograph. It was therefore decided to use magnetometry as well. Overall, the geological effects have resulted in the survey’s being rather disappointing, but there are indications suggesting that other buildings may be present within the enclosure ditch.The survey located the building and ditch revealed in the air photograph, and was able to provide greater detail of its internal detail. It would appear to be a corridor villa with corridor on the east side, facing towards the River Wye and a complex of rooms. These appear as linear high-resistance and negative magnetic anomalies, indicating a masonry building; the detail shown by the two techniques is similar, but not always the same. The magnetometer survey includes, at the south end, a unit consisting of two rooms and a corridor. At the north end an apse was revealed on the resistivity survey; this may belong to a different phase. The magnetometer survey also revealed a positive anomaly extending southwards from the southeast corner of the building, probably associated with it (?a boundary wall). There is also a small circular/polygonal structure lying separately due south of the building; this may have nothing at all to do with the Roman remains, but it is possible that in a villa complex it could be some sort of associated structure such as a mausoleum (cf Lullingstone). In addition to the linear features picked up by the magnetometer survey there was a series of clusters of magnetic disturbance over and to the east of the building and in the northwest and southwest corners of the survey area; these may be spreads of building materials with high magnetic potential, such as tile, but the presence on the resistivity survey of a complex of possible linear features to the east of the building suggests that there may be other buildings here, obscured by the effects of the geology. There is no possibility of determining from the survey alone whether those spreads at the extreme west of the survey area have any connection with the other feature on the site (Barker and Mercer 1999).

Sources :
Barker, P P and Mercer, E J F , 1999 , Geophysical survey carried out at Wyndciff, Porthcasseg
Evans, E M , 2001 , Romano-British southeast Wales settlement survey: Final report ( © GGAT)
01/PM/Desc text//Boon/GC/1973/An illustrated guide to the ancient monuments of Wales 4/The Roman occupation/p44
2/AP/1996/J Sorrell
Nash-Williams, V E, 1928, Topographical list of Roman remains found in South Wales, Bull Board Celtic Stud 4, 246-71
Trett, B and Hudson R, 1993, Newport Museum, enquiries, Archaeol Wales 23, 62
Anon, 1893, Archaeol Cambrensis 5 ser 10, 340-1

Events :
E001657 : Romano-British Southeast Wales Settlement Survey (year : 1998-2001)
E001665 : Field visit to Wyndcliff (year : 1999)
E004482 : Wyndcliff, Porthcasseg,S. Wales, Geophysical Survey (year : 1999)
E008773 : GGAT52: Monmouthshire Historic Settlements, Caldicot & Raglan (year : 1999)

Related records
GGAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 00764G
GGAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 06146g

Compiled date : 10-05-2002


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