Stratigraphic and palynological evidence from trenches at Wollaston, Northamptonshire, suggest viticulture was extensively practised at this Roman site. It is argued that the apparent lack of viticultural tools and wine presses in the archaeological record in Britain is not reliable evidence for the absence of viticulture at that time.

FIGURE 1. Colour photograph of an excavated planting trench at Wollaston.The Wollaston vineyards: stratigraphy and palynology Northamptonshire Archaeology has carried out large-scale archaeological recording in advance of gravel extraction for over five years at Wollaston. The quarries lay on the south and east side of a long bend in the river Nene where there was a wide flood plain. Running the entire 3 km of the study area lay a major Roman road along which low-status farmsteads were spaced between 500-700 m apart with pottery indicating occupation from the 1st to 4th centuries. At the northern end FIGURE 2. A pollen trap in the Chevilswarde organic vineyard, Leicestershire.of the initial quarry an area of 7.5 ha of parallel trenches 5 m apart had been identified in the evaluation. The steep-sided, flat-bottomed trenches were 0.85 m wide and 0.3 m deep and were of uncertain function. Similar trenches had been identified by D. Jackson at Grendon, 3 km to the south, as lazy beds (Jackson 1995). Careful hand excavation of a sample of the trenches recovered post pits along both sides, set into infill deposits. The post pits did not form a coherent plan and probably reflected renewalheplacement of posts over an extended period. The occurrence of posts in-

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