Lickfold, near Wiggonholt in the Arun valley, is the site of a Romano-British bathhouse excavated in 1864, associated with a broader settlement complex that may have functioned as a mansio, villa, or roadside station. Occupation appears to span the later 2nd to 4th centuries AD, with the bathhouse representing a substantial masonry structure indicative of an establishment of more than purely domestic character.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site lies close to the Roman road (Stane Street's western branches/Sussex road network) linking Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) with the Weald, and its bath suite, scale, and position have led to suggestions it served travellers as a mansio or official posting station. The wider Wiggonholt complex, including a known religious focus and finds of high-status material, points to a locally significant nodal settlement rather than an isolated farm.
The 1864 excavation by S. Evershed uncovered the bathhouse with hypocaust, flue tiles, painted wall plaster, and tessellated flooring, together with coins and pottery typical of a 2nd–4th century range. Subsequent fieldwork in the Wiggonholt area has produced further Roman material including the well-known Wiggonholt lead tank, but the Lickfold structures themselves have not been extensively re-investigated by modern excavation, leaving the precise plan and function of the settlement unresolved.
Lickfold, near Wiggonholt in the Arun valley, is the site of a Romano-British bathhouse excavated in 1864, associated with a broader settlement complex that may have functioned as a mansio, villa, or roadside station. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a mansio / station site from the Roman period in Britain.
Lickfold is classified as a Roman mansio / station — 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 Pulborough (1.3 km), Roman barrow at Broomershill, 200m south east of Brocks Rew Farm (1.4 km), Romano-British villa at Borough Farm (2.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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