Bourton-on-the-Water was a small Romano-British roadside settlement in the Cotswolds, situated near the crossing of the Fosse Way and a tributary route along the upper Windrush valley. Occupation spans the later 1st to 4th centuries AD, with the site functioning as a modest agricultural and craft-working community, possibly with a minor religious focus, rather than a fully developed small town.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
It formed part of the dense network of rural settlements and farmsteads in the prosperous Cotswold civitas of the Dobunni, benefiting from proximity to the Fosse Way and the regional market economy centred on Cirencester (Corinium). Salmonsbury, the adjacent Iron Age oppidum, indicates continuity of occupation from the late pre-Roman period into the Roman era.
Excavations at Salmonsbury Camp and within the village have recovered Roman pottery, coins, brooches, ironworking debris, and structural traces including stone foundations and a possible shrine, alongside evidence of mixed agriculture. Finds of votive material and a hoard of metalwork have been noted, though no large-scale public buildings or planned street grid have been identified, consistent with a settlement of village rather than small-town status.
Bourton-on-the-Water was a small Romano-British roadside settlement in the Cotswolds, situated near the crossing of the Fosse Way and a tributary route along the upper Windrush valley. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Bourton-on-the-Water 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 Bourton Bridge Roman settlement (0.9 km), Chessels Roman site (2.4 km), New Court Ground Roman villa (S of new buildings) (4.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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