Romano-British Agricultural Land Management Adjacent to the Dringhouses Roadside Settlement, York: Archaeological investigations at Abbeyfields House, Regency Mews, Dringhouses, York

Excavation in advance of building work at Abbeyfield House, Regency Mews, led to the discovery of field systems laid out in the early Roman period. Evidence of land management survived in the form of a series of ditches laid out in a grid pattern respecting the line of the nearby southern approach road to York. Pottery dates indicate use and maintenance of the field system in the 2nd century CE before falling out of use in the 3rd century. Analysis of paleoenvironmental remains from a 2nd-century CE well tentatively suggests that the local environment was one of damp open ground or grassland where the ditched enclosures were supplemented with hedgerows, and perhaps included small stands of trees. The presence of a large collection of 2nd-century white slipware flagons in the fill of the well indicate this water source was probably being accessed by people occupying roadside buildings at the neighbouring 42–50 Tadcaster Road site, where vessels of this type were also found in large quantities. Following the Romano-British period there is no evidence to suggest that the site had been utilised in a particularly intensive manner. Several small and abraded medieval pottery sherds had found their way into the top of earlier features through post-depositional processes; however, it was not definitively possible to assign any features to that period. Agricultural activity likely continued at the site until enclosure of the area as gardens and sports grounds occurred in the 20th century.