Normangate Field lies immediately north of the small Roman town of Durobrivae (Water Newton) in Cambridgeshire, on the north bank of the River Nene. It was an extensive extramural industrial and craft suburb active from the later 1st century through the 4th century AD, forming part of the wider Lower Nene Valley settlement complex centred on Durobrivae and linked by Ermine Street.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site is significant as one of the principal foci of the Nene Valley pottery industry, which by the 3rd and 4th centuries supplied colour-coated wares across Britain and into the northern frontier. It also housed ironworking and other crafts, making it an important economic adjunct to Durobrivae, one of Roman Britain's wealthiest small towns.
Aerial photography and excavations (notably by the Nene Valley Research Committee from the 1960s–70s) have revealed pottery kilns, workshops, timber and stone buildings, lanes, wells, and iron-smelting evidence laid out along streets extending from Ermine Street. Finds include large quantities of Nene Valley colour-coated wares, mortaria, kiln furniture, and metalworking debris, confirming its character as a densely occupied production zone rather than a residential quarter.
Normangate Field lies immediately north of the small Roman town of Durobrivae (Water Newton) in Cambridgeshire, on the north bank of the River Nene. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman site in Normangate Field is classified as a Roman site — 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 villa SW of Castor station (0.7 km), Durobrivae (Water Newton) (0.8 km), The fort and Roman walled town of Durobrivae and its south, west and east suburbs, immediately south and east of Water Newton Village (1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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