Ewe Close is one of the most extensive and best-preserved Romano-British settlements in Cumbria, lying on the limestone uplands of Crosby Ravensworth Fell in the former Westmorland. The site comprises two adjoining nucleated settlements of drystone hut circles — a larger enclosed group and a smaller unenclosed cluster — set within an associated field system, occupied broadly during the 2nd–4th centuries AD, with a later medieval farmstead overlying part of the area. Wicker Street (the Roman road from Brougham to Low Borrowbridge) runs immediately past the settlement, and Ewe Close appears to have been a substantial native pastoral farming community of perhaps 100+ inhabitants at its peak.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site is significant as a clear example of a native Brigantian/Carvetian agricultural settlement persisting and arguably flourishing alongside Roman military infrastructure, and its proximity to Wicker Street suggests it both predated and adapted to the imposition of the Roman road network. Its scale and visibility have made it a type-site for upland Romano-British settlement in the north-west.
Excavated by W. G. Collingwood in 1908–9, who recorded circular drystone houses, paved yards, connecting passages and enclosing walls, recovering modest finds including Roman pottery (including Samian), querns and iron objects indicating a 2nd–4th-century occupation. The
Ewe Close is one of the most extensive and best-preserved Romano-British settlements in Cumbria, lying on the limestone uplands of Crosby Ravensworth Fell in the former Westmorland. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Ewe Close Romano-British enclosed and unenclosed stone hut circle settlements and associated field system, medieval farmstead and Wicker Street Roman road 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 Ewe Locks Romano-British settlement, Romano-British farmstead and two medieval shielings (0.7 km), Cow Green Romano-British settlement and medieval shieling (1.5 km), Burwens Romano-British settlement and associated field system (1.7 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 Ewe Close Romano-British enclosed and unenclosed stone hut circle settlements and associated field system, medieval farmstead and Wicker Street Roman road