The Romano-British settlements east of Yeavering Bell, including the Old Sheepfold settlement, form a cluster of small unenclosed and lightly enclosed stone-built farmsteads on the lower slopes and shoulders of the Cheviot massif in north Northumberland. These settlements were active broadly in the 2nd–4th centuries AD, comprising stone-walled round houses arranged around small yards or sunken courtyards, with associated terraced cultivation plots and trackways. They represent a continuation of native upland farming traditions, established after the large pre-Roman Iron Age hillfort on Yeavering Bell itself had ceased to be a focal centre.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
These farmsteads form part of the dense palimpsest of Romano-British rural settlement in the Cheviot foothills, lying north of Hadrian's Wall in territory beyond the formal province for much of its history but firmly within the Roman economic and cultural sphere. Their proximity to the major Anglo-British centre of Ad Gefrin (Yeavering) in the valley below also makes them significant for understanding long-term settlement continuity across the late Roman to early medieval transition.
The settlements are known primarily from earthwork survey rather than excavation, with stone-walled hut circles, embanked enclosures, and associated cord-rig and lynchetted fields recorded by RCHME and later Northumberland surveys; characteristic features include scooped yards and
The Romano-British settlements east of Yeavering Bell, including the Old Sheepfold settlement, form a cluster of small unenclosed and lightly enclosed stone-built farmsteads on the lower slopes and shoulders of the Cheviot massif in north Northumberland. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Romano-British settlements E of Yeavering Bell containing the Old Sheepfold settlement and settlements to the W and S of it 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 Roman period native farmstead and associated scooped enclosures and trackways on east slope of Harehope Hill, 925m south east of High Akeld Cottages (2.4 km), Roman period native settlement, associated field system and trackway, and medieval farmstead 270m south of Torleehouse (2.5 km), Romano-British farmstead 900m north east of triangulation point on Gains Law (2.7 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 Romano-British settlements E of Yeavering Bell containing the Old Sheepfold settlement and settlements to the W and S of it