York Historic Environment Record

Ring gullies and double gully enclosures noted on the site. Also three large pit like features interpreted as watering holes to collect water for any livestock. Discussions with the main contractor suggested an aquifer is present running roughly adjacent to the east of the A1237 road. This would explain the localised water table and remarkably well-preserved organic deposits discovered towards the base of these watering holes. Additionally, the grouping of these features suggests that this spring-line has ancient origins.

SYO3020:
A range of striking similarities are apparent with how Late Iron Age/ Romano-British agricultural activities at Heslington East and Wetherby Roundabout exploited the available landscape resources during the Late Iron Age/ Romano-British transitional period. A mixed farming economy is evident, with a significant weighting towards pastoral activity focussed on watering and control of livestock hinging on the presence of reliable spring water. Stabilising the sides of watering holes with wattle linings, which was at times augmented with cobbled hard standing, implemented long term access for livestock. When maintenance became a necessity, re-cutting was undertaken or a new watering hole was opened in the vicinity. An element of seasonality to the availability of water is suggested by the pattern of silting and the plant fossil remains present in some of the Wetherby Roundabout watering holes. The positioning of boundaries in relation to wells/ watering holes would have enabled control of livestock movement to and from those features.

Dating evidence demonstrates a continuity of pastoral activity from the Late Iron Age into the 2nd century at both sites, little influenced by the establishment of the Fortress and settlement at York. Agricultural practice and how the landscape was managed did not, however, remain static throughout the Roman period. At Heslington East the laying out of a new road along the spring line appears to have been the catalyst for a substantial shift in the organisation of landholding into the later Roman period. The 2nd century was also when the last watering hole at Wetherby Roundabout finally silted-up, inferring that the water source there had lost its importance by then. Given the small area of this site abandonment of the spring cannot be seen as conclusive evidence of a comparable transition in landscape exploitation, particularly as the area investigated at Heslington East was substantially larger, but it does at least offer an intriguing parallel hinting at a local re-organisation of agricultural practices in York’s hinterland.

YAT, 2020, Wetherby Road Roundabout WB and EXC Assessment (Unpublished document). SYO2226.

York Archaeology, 2023, Wetherby Road Roundabout WB and EXC Analysis (Unpublished document). SYO3020.