The Romano-British kilns at Column Ride in Savernake Forest were a significant pottery production centre active from the mid-1st century AD (c. AD 50–60) into the 2nd century, producing the distinctive grey wares known as "Savernake ware." The industry exploited the local Reading Beds clays and the abundant fuel of the forest, operating as a cluster of kilns spread across the wider Savernake area rather than a single nucleated workshop.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Savernake ware was one of the earliest and most widely distributed coarse-ware industries of southern Roman Britain, supplying military and civilian sites across Wiltshire and beyond, including Cunetio (Mildenhall) and the early garrison at Cirencester. The industry is notable for emerging very rapidly after the Conquest, suggesting either direct military stimulus or the swift commercial response of local potters to new markets.
Excavations by Annable in the early 1960s identified multiple kiln sites along Column Ride and at nearby locations such as Oare, recovering wasters, kiln furniture, and the characteristic flint- and grog-tempered grey jars with everted rims. The kilns were generally simple single-flue updraught structures, and detailed publication of the full kiln assemblages remains limited, with much of the type-series defined through distribution studies rather than full site reports.
The Romano-British kilns at Column Ride in Savernake Forest were a significant pottery production centre active from the mid-1st century AD (c. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a production site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Romano-British kilns, Column Ride, Savernake Forest is classified as a Roman production site — a industrial 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 Romano-British kilns 150yds (135m) SSW of Tottenham House (2.9 km), Cunetio (4.5 km), Roman villa in Castle Copse (6.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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