The Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group was founded in 2018 after the local community became concerned about a proposed rendering plant at Villa Farm, Folly Lane, Norton Disney that would have destroyed the setting of a Roman Villa and harmed the local historic environment.

As individuals we decided to turn our shared passion and interest of history and archaeology into an official archaeology group and challenge the developers narrative about the wider site. Since then we have researched and mapped the local archaeology. We were so successful that one of the principal reasons for the rendering plant plans being rejected in 2020 was down to all the new information we discovered about the site. 

We also made a successful application to Historic England in 2020 to expand the boundaries of the scheduled ancient monument surrounding the Roman Villa, as well as carrying out out three large geophysical surveys and a two day excavation in 2021. We have also created a viewing and interpretation point for the Roman Villa at Hill Holt Wood as apart of the legacy of three years of research. 

In September 2022 we conducted our largest activity to date, a two week community excavation. The “Norton Disney Big Community Dig“. Working in partnership with Allen Archaeology, a well respected commercial archaeology company we excavated a large Iron Age enclosure feature. Over 20 volunteers took part, many with no previous experience of field archaeology. In addition we held a community open day of the dig site as part of National Heritage Open Week. 

The results of this excavation will take some time to process but we will be publishing the subsequent report online.

Naturally ambitions grow and plans for 2023 are in development. Watch this space!