n YATE HERITAGE CENTRE Romans around Yate

A DISPLAY celebrating the rich Roman archaeology we can boast in our area will be at Yate Heritage Centre from June 6 to July 29.

The display will cover all manner of themes, from road networks to climate change, and will contain some of the best finds from excavations at Hall End Roman site, the premier Roman settlement in South Gloucestershire.

A celebratory display would not have been possible 30 years ago.

In the late 20th century people regarded the Yate area as an archaeological desert, at least for Roman settlements.

Despite a major Roman road passing to the west of the town, there seemed to be little evidence here.

This was all to change. There have now been several sites in the wider Yate area that have yielded significant finds.

Evidence of Roman villas which would have had agricultural estates have emerged at Horton,

Badminton and Lower Woods, Hawkesbury.

At the Lower Woods Lodge site, excavations revealed not only a villa with a mosaic floor, but also an inscription on the mosaic.

The only remaining letters were REG, supposedly the owner of the villa; it is one of fewer than ten inscribed mosaics in the country.

One of the most important Roman discoveries in the South West was made in 2001, when work began on a series of fields near Hall End Farm, Wickwar.

Geophysical survey and excavation revealed a fantastically well-preserved small Roman town with a central road, off of which were buildings and evidence of social life dating from the 2nd until maybe the 5th century AD.

The town, with an estimated 500 or so inhabitants, yielded all manner of local and continental artefacts and coins.

Perhaps more significant was the evidence of building materials such as tiles and lead, and a stretch of town paving.

Discoveries of Roman settlement have continued to excite archaeologists and demonstrate this area as one with a high population, reflecting the location between Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester.

A further settlement of round houses was discovered north of Chipping Sodbury in 2022. Will there be more to follow in the coming years?

Yate Heritage Centre is part of

Diary dates:

Until June 3: Yate Art Open

June 6-July 29: Romans around Yate

June 27, 7.30pm: Yate Lecture Series, the Bristol Cotton Mill Story with Professor Mike Richardson.