The site at Pitlands Farm, Up Marden, lies on the dip slope of the South Downs in West Sussex and represents a modest Romano-British villa or farmstead, likely occupied between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD. It sits within a dense pattern of small-to-medium villas on the chalk downland north of Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum), and shows evidence of subsequent medieval activity overlying or adjacent to the Roman remains.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The villa formed part of the agricultural hinterland supplying Chichester, one of the wealthier corners of Roman Britain, where downland estates produced grain and likely wool for the civitas of the Regini/Regni. It is not individually distinguished but contributes to the well-documented concentration of rural settlement around the Chichester Entrenchments and the Stane Street corridor.
Little has been published from formal excavation here; the site is known principally from surface finds — building rubble, tile, and Romano-British pottery — together with traces of medieval occupation suggesting continuity or reuse of the location. No detailed plan of buildings, mosaics, or bath suite has been recorded in the public literature for this particular site.
The site at Pitlands Farm, Up Marden, lies on the dip slope of the South Downs in West Sussex and represents a modest Romano-British villa or farmstead, likely occupied between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Romano-British villa and traces of medieval occupation at Pitlands Farm, Up Marden is classified as a Roman villa — 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 West Marden (2.7 km), Chilgrove (3.7 km), Iron Age farmstead and Roman villa, 360m SSW of Brickkiln Farm (3.7 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 villa and traces of medieval occupation at Pitlands Farm, Up Marden