East Anglian Archaeology 158: Newnham: a Roman bath house and estate centre east of Bedford

Excavations were conducted in the early 1970s at the site of an elaborate Roman farmstead at Newnham, Bedfordshire. Nearly all of the Roman remains have been destroyed by gravel quarrying that began in the 1950s. The excavations, under the direction of the late Angela Simco, recorded part of the core area of the farmstead and recovered significant assemblages of artefacts and animal bone. Post-excavation analysis and publication was not completed at the time and the site archive eventually passed to Bedford Museum in 2000. Funding from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, distributed by English Heritage, allowed the results of fieldwork to be published.

The farmstead probably originated in the 1st century AD, just before the Roman conquest, and was initially fairly typical of contemporary rural settlements in the Great Ouse Valley. By the end of the 2nd century, however, the site had acquired at least one relatively substantial rectangular building with stone foundations, suggesting a degree of ‘Romanisation’ not usually apparent on farmsteads in the Bedford region. In the 3rd century an even more elaborate stone-founded building was constructed, which comprised a range of rooms with under-floor heating. The stone footings had been heavily robbed, hampering detailed interpretation, but three of the hypocaust rooms in the later building are thought to have been a bath suite.

After the end of Roman administration in Britain the ruined farmstead seems to have been a site of early Anglo-Saxon settlement. This is evidenced by the presence of Anglo-Saxon pottery, although hardly any features can be dated to this period.

Newnham: a Roman bath house and estate centre east of Bedford is available from Oxbow books. For more information, visit the East Anglian Archaeology website.