The site comprises two Roman barrows situated near Thornborough Bridge in Buckinghamshire, close to a crossing of Padbury Brook on a minor Roman road branching from Watling Street. The barrows are believed to date from the 2nd century AD and likely mark the burials of wealthy individuals connected with a roadside settlement or villa estate active during the Roman occupation. Though listed under bridge infrastructure, the principal Roman remains here are the funerary monuments adjacent to the routeway and its watercourse crossing.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The barrows are among the best-preserved Roman tumuli in Britain and demonstrate the importance of this minor road and crossing point, where elite burials were sited to be visible to travellers in the manner typical of Romano-British funerary display. Their location underscores the integration of indigenous burial traditions with Roman roadside commemoration in the south Midlands.
The larger barrow was excavated in 1839 by the Duke of Buckingham, producing rich grave goods including bronze vessels, a wine jug, lamp, and pottery, indicative of high-status cremation burials of mid-2nd century date. Later survey and limited investigation in the vicinity have identified a probable Romano-British settlement and a small masonry temple nearby, suggesting a more extensive ritual and roadside complex than the barrows alone imply.
The site comprises two Roman barrows situated near Thornborough Bridge in Buckinghamshire, close to a crossing of Padbury Brook on a minor Roman road branching from Watling Street. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a bridge site from the Roman period in Britain.
Two Roman barrows 200m ENE of Thornborough Bridge is classified as a Roman bridge — a infrastructure 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 Deanshanger (7.1 km), Tingewick (7.7 km), Roman villa SE of Cosgrove Hall (10.9 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 Two Roman barrows 200m ENE of Thornborough Bridge