Archaeological Excavations at Holme Hall Quarry, South Yorkshire

field system was probably established in the mid-late 1st century AD, early in the Roman military occupation, as a planned reorganisation of the landscape which served to intensify agricultural production of livestock and crops, presumably for both local consumption and export to the Roman military. Numerous late Roman pits and postholes within the two farmsteads suggest the area was occupied until at least the late 3rd century AD, but virtually no evidence was found for Roman activity in or after the early/mid 4th-century, perhaps due to disruption of the previous system of military supply and unrest at this time across Britannia and other parts of the Roman Empire. Features dating to the Anglo-Saxon period were also present, but there is little evidence for activity thereafter until the 18th and 19th centuries. During this period local limestone was quarried and burnt to produce lime for 'marling' the fields to support the increase in agricultural production needed to support the Napoleonic war effort and

growing urbanisation. [Publisher's text]

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