50°37′58.3″N 2°04′0.83″W / 50.632861°N 2.0668972°W
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/2014-06-10-Bucknowle_House.jpg/220px-2014-06-10-Bucknowle_House.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/2014-06-10-Bucknowle_Farmhouse.jpg/220px-2014-06-10-Bucknowle_Farmhouse.jpg)
Bucknowle Farm is the site of a Romano-British settlement and a Roman villa, located one kilometre southeast of Church Knowle and one kilometre southwest of Corfe Castle village in Dorset, England (grid reference SY95368146). It is about seven kilometres south of Wareham and approximately nine kilometres west of Swanage in the heart of the Isle of Purbeck.
A number of Romano-British sites have been discovered and studied on the Isle of Purbeck. The Romano-British villa complex found at Bucknowle Farm is the first substantial villa to be found south of the Purbeck Hills.[1] It was excavated between 1976 and 1991.
The first signs to its existence were unearthed in 1975 as fragments of pottery were found in a field.[2][3] The excavations, that subsequently lasted until the summer of 1991, conclusively revealed a complex of domestic and farmstead buildings. Moreover, beneath these, a more complicated system of Iron Age and early Roman Age habitation was uncovered.[4]
There is a camping site within the grounds of Bucknowle Farm.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ Romano-British villa at Bucknowle Farm.
- ^ "National Character Areas / South Purbeck". 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
- ^ "136. South Purbeck". 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
- ^ Historic England. "Monument No. 456872". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 3 January 2014.
- ^ "Bucknowle Farm camping site". Simply Purbeck. UK. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
Further reading
[edit]- J. Collins, N. Field; A. Light, (1985), Excavations on the Roman Villa at Bucknowle Farm, Corfe Castle: A Summary of Work, 1976-84. Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society. ISBN 090034122X
- Tony Light, Peter Ellis (2009): Bucknowle, A Romano-British Villa and its ancedents: Excavations 1976-1991, Dorchester, ISBN 978-0-900341-87-8