Oram's Arbour is a substantial Middle to Late Iron Age enclosure on the western side of what later became Roman Venta Belgarum (Winchester), occupying the gravel terrace above the River Itchen. Roughly 20 hectares in extent and active primarily from the 4th to 1st centuries BC, it is too large and low-lying to function as a conventional hillfort and is generally interpreted as a defended polyfocal settlement or oppidum-type centre that preceded the Roman town.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
It is significant as the immediate Iron Age antecedent to Venta Belgarum, the civitas capital of the Belgae, and represents one of the rare examples in central southern Britain of a major late prehistoric centre whose role was transferred — though shifted in location — to a Roman planned town nearby. Activity at Oram's Arbour declined as the Roman settlement at Winchester developed in the 1st century AD.
Excavations, notably by Martin Biddle in the 1960s and subsequent Winchester Museums work, have traced sections of a substantial ditch and bank circuit, with internal evidence of roundhouses, pits, and pottery indicating occupation from the Middle Iron Age. Finds are relatively modest compared with major oppida such as Silchester or Calleva, and large parts of the enclosure remain unexcavated beneath the modern suburb of Fulflood.
Oram's Arbour is a substantial Middle to Late Iron Age enclosure on the western side of what later became Roman Venta Belgarum (Winchester), occupying the gravel terrace above the River Itchen. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Oram's Arbour 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 Venta (0.4 km), Romano-British farmstead and associated field system on Teg Down (1.7 km), Roman road E of St Catherine's Hill (2.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
Aubrey Research generates detailed historical reports for any location in Britain, incorporating Roman heritage, Domesday Book records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and much more. Enter a nearby address to begin.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Oram's Arbour