Banwell RR - 19 June 2018 >

just Vince and myself; others couldn’t make it. Also we had hoped to meet up with Roy Rice, who lives in Banwell and knows a lot about local Roman sites including I think the local road; however he had a visitor on this day but intends to come to our next visit on July 3.

The plan had been to look for the possible road from Charterhouse to Uphill. Its line has been contentious and I was frankly sceptical. However, learning that there was a sizeable small town at Winthill ( immediately south east of Banwell and probably according to Vince of bigger area than Bath) and that a port has recently been discovered (according to Cat Lodge), at Uphill, I’ve changed my mind. Roads don’t go to villas but they do go to towns.

The picture is taken from the southern part of the hill of the  Winthill town site looking south east towards Winscombe which is the dark patch in the distance just below the skyline and a short way right of the large tree in the top middle of the picture. The line of the road probably proceeds from the town area in the foreground, across the Vale of Winscombe, passing to the left of Winscombe before climbing up to the Mendip ridge. 

There are several HER references (in my outline of HER) and a proposed line by EK Tratman ( see online) all with grid references. Well worth exploring.

On Tuesday, we walked over part of the Winthill site looking at humps and bumps, Which as is the way with photos can be seen only with difficulty in the photo below.

The Winthill town site is on a hill which slopes down sharply to the north south and east; my knowledge of Roman town sites is that they are not built on hills and indeed Hill forts were usually replaced by nearby towns on a low level. The town is described in HER as a lead mining settlement with a large lead mining trench immediately to the west so perhaps the town grew up around the lead extraction on the hill.

Next outing with Vince is Tuesday third of July starting from Banwell. Details later.

Bev