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Cowbridge Roman Settlement

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NPRN307254
Map ReferenceSS97SE
Grid ReferenceSS9944074660
Unitary (Local) AuthorityThe Vale of Glamorgan
Old CountyGlamorgan
CommunityCowbridge with Llanblethian
Type Of SiteSETTLEMENT
PeriodRoman
Description
The town of Cowbridge lies on the line of the Roman road between Cardiff and Neath and the town has produced material from the late first century and a bath-house incorporating stamped tiles of Legio II Augusta. Its origins may therefore be military, and the destruction of the bath-house in the Hadrianic period may support this, as do the discovery of large ditches behind the Midland Bank and at the local authority depot to the south. If there is a military origin then the fort is likely to have stood by the Thaw River and to have pre-dated the road whose line it would have cut. A foundation date of after the AD 80s is suggested by the pottery sequence.

Later occupation in the area appears to be mainly industrial as extensive evidence of iron smelting and smithying has been recognised.

Sources: Parkhouse & Evans 1996 'Excavations in Cowbridge 1977-88'.

J.Wiles, RCAHMW, 14 January 2003