This unnamed mine lies in the East Midlands near the Rutland/Lincolnshire border, in an area associated with Roman iron extraction along the Jurassic ironstone belt that runs through Rutland, south Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. Activity at such sites typically spans the later 1st to 4th centuries AD, exploiting the rich Northampton Sand ironstone via shallow opencast or bell-pit workings rather than deep mining.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Iron production in this part of the Midlands fed both local agricultural and military demand, with the wider region (notably Laxton, Pickworth and the Rockingham Forest sites) forming one of the more productive ironworking zones of Roman Britain outside the Weald and Forest of Dean. Its significance is economic rather than military, contributing to a dispersed, rural industrial landscape rather than a single administered orefield.
I do not know this specific site in detail; it is recorded in Pleiades but, like many Midlands ironstone workings, has likely been identified through surface traces of slag, roasting hearths, or disturbed ground rather than systematic excavation. Comparable nearby sites have produced tap slag, furnace bases of simple shaft-furnace type, and associated Roman coarseware indicating modest, possibly seasonal, operation by rural communities.
This unnamed mine lies in the East Midlands near the Rutland/Lincolnshire border, in an area associated with Roman iron extraction along the Jurassic ironstone belt that runs through Rutland, south Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a mine site from the Roman period in Britain.
Unnamed Mine is classified as a Roman mine — 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 Unnamed Mine (0.8 km), Bourne (6.6 km), Iron Age and Roman settlement including a saltern on Hall Meadow (7.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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