THE ROMAN HISTORY OF HIGHWORTH'S OLD GOLF COURSE

Highworth Historical Society (HHS)’s 1992 trilogy ‘A History Of Highworth’ has a chapter dedicated to Highworth’s Roman past. In it, M.D.H. Collins discusses the settlement and occupation of Highworth by Roman culture between c150 and c450 AD and the central role of one particular site.

Collins records how Highworth’s “original” Roman settlement was apparently at Wrde Hill, on the South-facing slopes of what was, until recently, Highworth’s public golf course. Collins states “On the slopes of the hill, a Roman settlement, apparently of a farming nature. The water supply for this farm was the abundant springs which archaeological evidence has shown to have been running from prehistoric times”.

The specific location within Highworth of this original Roman farming settlement is hardly surprising, considering the only road name in Highworth to contain the very word “Roman” is that of Roman Way – which leads South from the Cricklade Road to Botany Farmhouse which stands now in the grounds of what was until the 1980s, Botany Farm.

Collins records Roman graves with human remains (adult and child) and artefacts including pottery, coins, roof tiles, beads, shears, knives, bowls, jewelry and pillow stones being found in the ground surrounding the Botany Farmhouse site at the upper end of the Old Golf Course land. Local Highworth residents have told of Roman artefacts they still possess: a funereal urn and ladle; a bracelet and coins.

Collins specifically records on a map the presence of what he describes as “a formal [Roman] burial area at the end of Roman Way…and Botany Farm” showing the exact locations of fifteen specific Roman graves discovered during the building of modern houses on the Wrde Hill estate. These are immediately adjacent to the present day Roman Way and Wrde Hill roads and one may speculate that, with Highworth’s Roman history spanning more than 300 years, many, many more formal graves must sit under the ground of the upper half of Highworth’s Old Golf Course.

Collins further expands; “In the surrounding countryside there were substantial villa-farms and smaller agricultural settlements” presumably accessed by means of what he describes as “a substantial Roman track” running from Coleshill through the [now] “centre of Highworth, under the line of an original medieval road to somewhere within the original [farming] settlement” and likely South-West to “link with Ermine Street, four miles to the South”.

More recently, the Swindon Advertiser reported in 2013 upon the ten year anniversary of BBC Television’s  Time Team’s visit to find Roman artefacts in and around Swindon. The article notes the finding in Highworth of “the head from a statue of Serapis, consort to Isis [a water goddess revered by the Romans] found at Highworth strongly suggests there had been a cult centre, undoubtedly dedicated to Isis and Serapis…in the 4th Century”.

So, as is clearly evident and recorded in recent historical literature, Highworth’s Old Golf Course was a key, and most likely the first, Roman settlement on Highworth Hill, containing a crucial South-facing farming complex, formal Roman burial grounds and possibly the location of a Romano-religious cult. It begs the question as to just how extensive the ancient Roman remains under the land are and whether these render the site one of special historical and/or scientific interest.