Camerton was a small Romano-British roadside settlement (vicus) strung along the Fosse Way in north Somerset, occupied from the mid-1st century AD through to the late 4th or early 5th century. It developed as a linear settlement of timber and stone buildings flanking the road, with evidence for both domestic occupation and small-scale industry, including ironworking and pewter manufacture.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its position on the Fosse Way between Bath (Aquae Sulis) and Ilchester (Lindinis) gave it economic importance as a wayside service settlement, and it is one of the better-known examples of this type of nucleated roadside community in the south-west. The pewter-working evidence is particularly notable, linking Camerton to the wider Mendip-area lead/pewter industry that supplied vessels found across late Roman Britain.
Excavations by W.J. Wedlake between the 1920s and 1950s (published as *The Excavation of the Romano-British Town of Camerton* in 1958) revealed strip buildings, hearths, ironworking debris, pewter moulds, coins, and a substantial assemblage of pottery and small finds spanning the Roman period. The site also produced earlier Iron Age and later post-Roman material, suggesting continuity of activity, though no defensive circuit or major public buildings have been identified.
Camerton was a small Romano-British roadside settlement (vicus) strung along the Fosse Way in north Somerset, occupied from the mid-1st century AD through to the late 4th or early 5th century. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Camerton 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 Camerton Romano-British town and associated Prehistoric and early medieval monuments (0.3 km), Roman villa at Upper Hayes (4.4 km), Wellow (5.7 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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