Sculptures from a Romano-British Well in Gloucestershire

Abstract

In the autumn of 1957 a well, from which three altars and five pieces of sculptures were recovered, was excavated by the writer in the Farnworth Gravel Pit, Great Chessells, Lower Slaughter, Gloucestershire.The well is the fifth to be found in the gravel pit, where remains of circular hut-floors, ovens, a corn-drying oven, and other domestic sites, accompanied by many potsherds, coins, and other objects of Romano-British date have come to light during the last 25 years. One rectangular building, 40 ft. long and 28 ft. wide, with foundations of masonry, was also uncovered and appeared to be the chief house of the village, while a whole series of superimposed drainage-ditches, outlining small fields, lay on the eastern slopes of the ground towards the Fosse Way, the latter just skirting the settlement, on its way to Bourtonon-the-Water, a mile distant.