Brampton, near Aylsham in Norfolk, was a substantial Roman small town occupying around 30 hectares on the north bank of the River Bure. It flourished from the later 1st century through the 3rd century AD, functioning as a centre for pottery production and riverine trade in the territory of the Iceni.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Brampton was one of the most important industrial settlements in Roman East Anglia, with over 130 pottery kilns identified — the largest concentration known in the region — producing greywares for local and wider distribution. Its position at the navigable head of the Bure linked it to the coastal trade and to the wider road network connecting Venta Icenorum (Caistor St Edmund) with the north Norfolk coast.
Excavations from the 1960s onwards, notably by Knowles and Green, revealed the kiln complexes, a defended enclosure of around 2 hectares with rampart and ditches, timber buildings, ironworking debris, and a possible quay or waterfront structure on the Bure. Finds include large quantities of locally produced coarsewares, coins, and metalwork, with aerial photography and geophysics defining the wider street grid and settlement extent.
Brampton, near Aylsham in Norfolk, was a substantial Roman small town occupying around 30 hectares on the north bank of the River Bure. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Brampton 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 settlement at Brampton (1 km), Bolwick Hall Farm, Roman site (1.3 km), Roman camp and settlement site W of Horstead (6.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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