The Roman settlement at Billingford, on the north bank of the River Wensum in central Norfolk, was a small roadside town that developed along the road running west from Venta Icenorum (Caistor St Edmund) toward the Fen edge. Occupation spans the later 1st to 4th centuries AD, with the settlement reaching its greatest extent in the 2nd and 3rd centuries as a linear arrangement of ditched enclosures, timber buildings, and yards strung along the road.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Billingford is one of a series of "small towns" or roadside settlements (alongside Brampton, Crownthorpe, Saham Toney, and Hockwold) that articulated the road network of the Icenian civitas, serving as a local market and service centre for the surrounding agricultural landscape. Its position at a river crossing gave it added importance for traffic between Venta Icenorum and the central Norfolk hinterland.
Excavations and evaluations from the 1990s onwards, together with extensive metal-detected and fieldwalked assemblages, have produced large quantities of coinage (including Iron Age issues suggesting a late pre-Roman precursor), brooches, a notable assemblage of religious objects, and evidence of timber buildings, wells, and boundary ditches flanking the road. A possible shrine or focus of religious activity has been suggested from the votive material, though no monumental stone structures have been identified.
The Roman settlement at Billingford, on the north bank of the River Wensum in central Norfolk, was a small roadside town that developed along the road running west from Venta Icenorum (Caistor St Edmund) toward the Fen edge. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
A Roman roadside settlement 150m south-west of Billingford Hall is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Roman villa W of Woodrising Wood (16.7 km), Roman enclosure 3/4 mile (1210m) NE of Panworth Hall (17.5 km), Romano-Celtic temple 590m south east of St James's Church (19 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
Aubrey Research generates detailed historical reports for any location in Britain, incorporating Roman heritage, Domesday Book records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and much more. Enter a nearby address to begin.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around A Roman roadside settlement 150m south-west of Billingford Hall