Roman Well Found in UK near A46 construction

[JGolomb]

Roman well found in A46 works

 

A ROMAN well has been unearthed near Bingham during work to dual the A46.

 

A heritage group is now campaigning for the historic site to be dismantled stone by stone and re-erected in the town to prevent it being demolished by bulldozers.

 

Peter Allen, chairman of the Bingham Heritage Trails Association, said: "We've got a great deal of information about the Roman occupation in Bingham and absolutely nothing is visible, it's all under ploughed fields.

 

"People can know it and read about it but they can't see anything that's Roman in origin

[caldrail]

Romans, or more to the point, Romano-British, didn't always build wells close to their homes. They got water from where they could find it. Rural settlements might be placed for a number of reasons and water was only one of them. TWhereas the Brits still living in the celtic fashion retained the use of upland sites, the Roman period villages typically preferred the lowland areas where such water was plentiful (and in fact, there are indications that Durocornovium (a town once located on Swindons east side) had many wooden buildings raised above ground level - a possible indicator of frequent flooding?

 

Regarding wells, the same sort of thing has been located in Swindon, where a Roman period well doesn't have a settlement close to it. It is interesting because the area isn't far from the River Ray, which although not impressive as a watercourse no doubt was able to supply water needs for local communities, although there is always the possibility that people preferred drinking water from wells as opposed to river water used for all sorts of purposes and thus potentially suspect.

 

As it happens, Swindon once had a number of springs (the Midland & South West Junction Railway made good use of one) but most have now dried up (there's a memorial inscription at the site of one ex-spring). The supply of water in the area was the major attraction of the hill and accounts for the Roman shrines located in the vicinity - a nymphaeum was recently uncovered at the Groundwell site, and there are suspicions that a major temple site lies buried under Swindons Old Town.

 

Whether such wells were specific to a nearby farm or settlement, or whether these facilities were shared between settlements, I don't know, but the picture of Romano-Brits carrying water home probably wasn't so unusual for rural England in those times. Aqueducts weren't built for villages.