Site 4 - Barrow and Windmill
This is the highest part of the central campus and on looking east from here, towards Brickyard Plantation, a raised earthen mound can be seen. It is clear from aerial photographs that this stands adjacent to the prehistoric Hollow Way, which runs from Westwood to Gibbet Hill (see Small Lane and Roman Settlement).
The fields around here contain loose finds dating from the prehistoric, Roman and medieval periods. The mound has the form and characteristic position of a Bronze Age barrow. 16th-century and later documents record this location as Mill Hill Field, the mound may thus represent the site of a medieval windmill, the builder of which may well have exploited an existing prehistoric mound as a suitable platform for the structure. Brickyard Plantation was created in the 19th century at the site of an exhausted quarry and clay pit, but it is still possible to imagine how the mound and the windmill would have dominated the landscape from all directions before the wood grew up.
The earthen mound today
Fragments of Roman mosaic have been found in the field to the south of the pond, which is bounded, on the south side at least, by sandstone walling. The farmhouse too has substantial sandstone walls buried in the garden and large sandstone blocks have also been used as footings for the current 18th-century building. Aerial photographs reveal a large (80 metre long) rectangular structure at this point. This structure may be associated with the Roman artefacts, or could represent surviving elements of a medieval structure. Given the density of medieval artefacts here and the substantial sandstone features, there is at least a possibility that there was building activity here related to the development of Cryfield monastery (seeMedieval Watermill) in the 12th century, whether the site represents actual monastic buildings or perhaps an associated grange or farm.
Artefacts found at the site
Roman Mosaic
Burnt flint blade and scraper