by Nick Corcos

Philp, Brian, 1997, "The Roman villa at Blacklands, Faversham", Kent Archaeological Review, 130, 236-239; Shawyer, Edward, 2003, "Swalcliffe Lea, Blacklands site", South Midlands Archaeology, 33, 64-71; Iles, R (ed), 1982, "Chew Magna: Blacklands", Bristol and Avon Archaeology, 1, 50; Webster, C, and Brunning, R, 2007, "Blacklands", in Gerrard, C, and Aston, M (eds), 2007, The Shapwick Project, Somerset: A Rural Landscape Explored, Society for Medieval Archaeology, Monograph 25, 398-403; Lawes, Jayne, 2006, "Delusions of grandeur in Early Roman Somerset", Current Archaeology, 201, 498-501 (reports on excavations on a Roman villa in a field called Blacklands, near Frome); at Wickwar in South Gloucestershire, a Roman period settlement characterised as a small to medium sized town has been identified, its main area apparently consisting of linear occupation strung out along a Roman road, and running through fields called Great and Little Blacklands. Selective geophysical survey and small scale, exploratory excavation has been carried out but the full report is as yet unpublished, and at the time of writing (Oct. 2008) exists only as 'grey literature' in the South Gloucestershire HER (SGSMR 14580): Trial Excavation of Land at Blacklands Hall End Farm, Avon Archaeology Unit (2002). There is, however, a useful short summary of the work printed in Bristol and Avon Archaeology 19, 2004, 112-113; see also http://www.southglos.gov.uk/Environment/HistoricEnvironmentHeritage/HistoryandArchaeology/WickwarRomanTown.htm. Finally, a group of fields at Weare, near Axbridge in Somerset, provides an instance of a site that has been included on a county HER for no other reason than that they are called Blacklands: www.somerset.gov.uk/her, PRN 11433. Searches of the archaeological literature, and of other online HERs, would produce numerous further examples.

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