Ancient village?

[Mikemonster]

Forgot to add;
I'm going to the UK for a week beginning Aug 30th for a week to attend a gathering of those of us who own a Panther www.panthercarclub.com
Our dinner/dance will be held at the Castle where they filmed much of Harry Potter. I'll be staying in London.

 

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[SolomonKey]

There is quite a bit on the web about the history of Totternhoe, which may be relevant.

Totternhoe Castle
http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English sites/61.html
Excavated between 1921-1932. Resistivity survey, in 2001, over the inner and outer baileys revealed evidence for an earlier field system on the outer bailey site, suggesting that the castle was built on the site of a prehistoric and Roman enclosure.

Index to South Midlands Archaeology
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/smaindex/t.html
Totternhoe, Beds 87/4; 97/14
fieldwalking 93/28, 29, 30; 98/17-18
Iron Age/Roman fields underlying Totternhoe Castle 02/9
Roman villa 93/30; 02/8-9
Saxon cemetery, Marina Drive 82/12
Norman motte and bailey, Totternhoe Knolls 71/15; 73/4
medieval landscape 87/24; 90/2; 93/30
medieval stone quarries 02/9
church of St Giles 73/45; 85/18; 86/25; 90/12; 93/30
Doolittle Lane 93/30

Totternhoe
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/BDF/Totternhoe/index.html
On the north side of it (a church) passes the Roman Iknield-street, skirting the downs, upon which are the remains of Totternhoe castle, overhanging the village of Stanbridge: the keep mount is lofty and encompassed by a circular fosse within another that is square, the latter enclosing the entire breadth of the ridge. Near this fortification is an ancient camp of a parallelogramic form, and to the east-ward are extensive quarries of freestone and limestone, below which, at a great depth, is a bed of clay.

About a mile and a half from Dunstable, and half a mile westward from Maiden Bower, on a projecting headland of the Chiltern range, are the celebrated earthworks called "Totterhoe Castle;" these consist of a lofty circular mount, with a slight vallum round its base, and a larger one, of an irregular form, at some distance from it; it is considered to have been a fortification of the ancient Britons, subsequently occupied by the Saxons, afterwards converted into a Roman camp; the form of the works indicating British and Roman military construction, and the name British and Saxon occupation.

http://community.channel4.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8896096411/m/1340002374
Posted 20-07-06 18:40
quote:
Originally posted by Maximus Perplexus:
I think there may be villa complex, or something similar at 51° 52'50.32"N 0°34'29.37"W. Are there any other cropmark-spotters out there?
I don't have Google earth so I can't check the site. But could it be this?
Location
TOTTERNHOE RIDGE; TOTTERNHOE; SOUTH BEDFORDSHIRE; BEDFORDSHIRE; England

Grid ref. OSGB - SP 98 21
Grid ref. LL - 000 34 W 51 52 N

Subject type and period
RING DITCH, BRONZE AGE

DVROCOBRIVIS
Minor Romano-British Settlement
http://www.roman-britain.org/places/durocobrivis.htm
This minor settlement grew up at the crossroads of Watling Street the main military highway, and the ancient "Icknield Way", a ridgeway running from Venta Icenorum, the capital of the Iceni in the NE, all the way to Aquae Sulis and the Sabrina Aestuarium (Severn Estuary) in the WSW.
The site of the Roman minor settlement of Durocobrivis lies below the present town of Dunstable in Bedfordshire; evidence is therefore limited.
Roman material has been collected from an area of around fourteen hectares, along a four hundred metre stretch of Watling Street, in places extending as far as 190 metres either side of that road.
Excavators have reported 'poor housing', timber buildings, roof-tile fragments, cobbled lanes, ditches, wells and pits.
The site was settled initially in the first century, and occupation continued into the fourth century.
There is a villa nearby at Totternhoe (SP9820) in Hertfordshire and pottery kilns at Luton (TL0624).

 

[Mikemonster]

Yes sorry; Didn't mean for it to spill out like that. If you have time for an afternoon of reading I'll tell you some of the things I've done wrong.
1. There were other reasons to move up there but Y2K was an element I added.
2. It was a HUGE mistake moving to rural Tennessee. It was like going back in time to the early 50's but without the honesty, pride and trust folks had back then.
3. The house was way overbuilt for the area and took over 3 years to sell. The only contracter I could get charged me $7.25 for each block laid. There are nearly 10,000 split faced concrete block.
4. Having a house like that in a place like that drew in curious folks from all over. No privacy, someone always trespassing. Had thousands in materials stolen. Finally had to get a devil dog.
5. Panther cars are great and not expensive. I paid 7,500 US for my Kallista and it's great fun to drive. Ford 4 cyl and 27 mpg.
6. I paid 12,500 for the 38 ft trimaran and put another 7,000 in it. I've used it 4 times. Dock rent is 200 mo. so each little afternoon sail has cost me 600.00 Duh. I sold it last month.My great treasure hunt was short lived when I met a man o war first day out.

Life for all of us is good. But for all of us it could be better.

 

[DBugR]

Got to add my .02 here. I was looking through a book created by the guy who took arial photos of many ancient sites around the world back in the 70s. There is a great photo of a circle mound located in England that was huge. I'd say about as large around as the one you've found. In the very center of that mound a church now sits. (It was built much later! 1300 or 1400 maybe.) I would say this site you've located here is very similar in construction to that great circle mound in the photo I saw. All the literature I've read about them states they were considered sacred by the ancient celts, which is why there are now Christian churches built in the middle of them, directly over the so called "sacred" site. This was a way to keep their sacred sites, under the guise of a new religion.

Great find Marc!

 

[DBugR]

Doesn't really look the same, but you're on the right track with that. I used the wrong word above when I described a church built in the center of the "mound". I should have stated the church was built in the middle of the ring on flat level ground. The ring itself was the only protusion from the surrounding terrain. Guess it would be better described as a "ring mound" perhaps. All else was flat. From the arial photograph in that book, you could see great detail of similar rectangular "former" building sites which would be virtually invisible while walking around on the site.

If someone knows of the site I'm talking about, or has the book I'm trying to describe, it would be great to Google Earth that site and compare it with this one Marc found. I'll try to get by the bookstore and get the name of the book.

 

[deepsix47]

I LOVE Google Earth!

I was browsing around a known, 3-4000 year old fortification NW of London, and found what appears to be the remains of an ancient settlement...

site.kml is the 3-4000 year old fortification NW of London
site2.kml is a farmfield that seems to have remnants of an old village
amphitheater.kml is an area that to me anyway, looks like an (unknown!) ancient amphitheater of some sort!

You will need Google Earth to view the attached files.

Here's more info.

Enjoy!

Thanks,
Marc Austin

p.s., I've also attached a couple images in case, for some reason, you don't have Google Earth.

Great find Marc!!!!

Deepsix

 

[WV_Detecting]

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/mapbrowser/

to compare notes

 

[digman]

Nice finds Mark. Very impressive, congratulations.
Digman.

 

[downindixie]

If I were close to this location,I would be using my CZ-5 day and night!

 

[Marc]

I might not follow up on this - that's why I posted it for the public to see.