Ashton was a Roman small town in the Nene Valley, situated near the crossing of a minor road and close to the river just north-east of modern Oundle. Occupation ran from the later 1st century AD through to the late 4th or early 5th century, with the settlement reaching its greatest extent in the 3rd–4th centuries as a roadside community of stone and timber buildings, yards, and enclosures spread over some 11–12 hectares.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Ashton was one of a string of Nene Valley small towns (alongside Durobrivae, Water Newton, and Titchmarsh) that serviced the region's intensive late Roman pottery and iron industries, and it was clearly an industrial and agricultural marketing centre rather than an administrative one. It is particularly notable for evidence of a Christian presence in the 4th century, including a lead tank fragment and a silver openwork plaque bearing the Chi-Rho monogram.
Excavations in the 1970s and 1980s (largely in advance of the A605 bypass, directed by Brian Dix and others) revealed strip buildings flanking the road, wells, ironworking debris, several inhumation cemeteries including infant burials, and evidence for craft production. Finds included the Chi-Rho plaque, coinage running into the House of Theodosius, and substantial assemblages of Nene Valley colour-coated wares indicating close ties to the nearby pottery industry.
Ashton was a Roman small town in the Nene Valley, situated near the crossing of a minor road and close to the river just north-east of modern Oundle. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Ashton Roman small town north east of Oundle is classified as a Roman site — 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 Ashton (1.2 km), Cotterstock (1.3 km), Apethorpe (7.1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Ashton Roman small town north east of Oundle