Brandiers Farm, Minety, Wiltshire

A community research project

Three seasons of community excavation (2022–2024) were undertaken at Brandiers Farm, Minety, six miles south of Cirencester, a previously unknown centre of Roman tile manufacture. The ‘community’ in this case was a mix of local residents, some of our established volunteers and work-experience students, and members of the Wiltshire Archaeology Field Group, all guided in the art of archaeological excavation and recording by our professional staff. The results exceeded all our expectations – not just in the significance of the remains – but also in how the community project proved such a positive and valued experience for everyone involved.

Site background

In the 1970s, two Roman tile kilns were excavated at Oaksey Park, 2 km to the north-west of Brandiers Farm. These were long believed to represent the main manufacturing centre of tiles stamped ‘LHS’ or ‘TPF’, which are well known from Roman sites in Gloucestershire and North Wiltshire (although only a couple of these tiles were found at Oaksey Park). However, the findings from Brandier now challenge this.

At Brandiers, the site was first noticed in the 1990s by the farm owners (the Lavery family) from tile fragments scattered around a pronounced earthwork mound. A subsequent geophysical survey found that there was widespread heat-affected debris around the mound, plus several other anomalies – certainly enough evidence to justify opening up a trench or three to investigate!

The excavations

At the end of our three seasons (2022–2024) we had revealed a sequence of three successive Roman tile kilns, the last one being well-preserved. The kilns would have been impressive structures, including drainage systems, and were roofed, indicating that the rainy British weather was even then a problem. In all, some 9.4 tonnes, 31,000 fragments, of tile and other ceramic building materials were found. This includes 218 tiles stamped variously LHS, TPF, TPFA, TPFB, TPFC or TPF, a figure several times exceeding that of the total known from all excavations at Roman Cirencester. All the evidence now indicates that it was the Brandier kilns, rather than those at Oaksey Park, that were the source of the stamped tiles.

Social Value and public benefit

As well as the archaeological success, the community research project at Brandiers proved extremely popular, generating social value and public benefit. It brought together people from different walks of life, to give archaeological training, and to enhance their knowledge and enjoyment of the past. Across the three seasons, there was a total of 192 volunteer placements, with the volunteers giving over 3700 hours to the project.

We were also pleased to welcome visits from fellow professionals and academics, all keen to see the results of the community endeavours. Beyond the Brandiers site, our progress was tracked by social media followers. Our stream of news updates and videos attracted around 20,000 post engagements across our social media platforms, with a post reach of over 300,000 in the first year alone.