1. CADW SCHEDULING DESCRIPTION

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument comprises the remains of a Romano-British temple, indicated by a cropmarks on aerial photographs. The cropmarks would appear to indicate a square central cella within a temenos or larger rectangular enclosure. The temple probably dates to the early centuries of the first millennium AD. Such sites usually comprise a small central square building, usually with a surrounding aisle or portico, set within a larger square or rectangular enclosure that is usually marked by a wall or fence. The temples are usually found in rural locations and represent the deliberate combination of Roman religion with local Celtic deities. Such temples are often found in association with an earlier Celtic cult site. The cropmarks very likely identify the location of ditches associated with the now-vanished building and enclosure and measure about 100m from NW to SE by up to 60m transversely overall. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of ritual structures and practices in the Roman period. The monument is an important relic of the rural landscape in the Roman period and retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence. The survival and recognition of Romano-British temples is very uncommon in Wales and this further enhances the importance of the Plas-newydd example. The area to be scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is irregular and measures 120m from NW to SE by up to 85m transversely.

2. The cropmarks of this temple were first recorded by Cambridge University air photographers on 27th August 1976 (image ref: CBE 91). It has since been recorded during RCAHMW aerial reconnaissance, most clearly on 14th August 2006 (image refs: AP_2006_4200-03). Related to other temple or probable temple sites in Wales including Gwehelog Roman temple (NPRN 405805) in the Usk valley, Gwent.
T. Driver, RCAHMW, 9th Dec 2009.

3. Proximity of the Ffynogion Iron Age spoons (NPRN 424529), Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, Denbighshire, to the Plasnewydd temple site. Described in Driver 2023.

This pair of [Iron Age] spoons (NPRN 424529) was discovered in the autumn of 1861 and first reported by the Revd Barnwell of nearby Ruthin School, as described above. Mr Hugh Jones of Cae-Groes, Ruthin, was walking the line of the fresh railway cutting to the south of Ffynogion house, where sand had been thrown up during the construction, when he noticed the spoons firmly attached face to face. Barnwell (1862, 208) noted:

'How long they had been lying there, is not certain, since the workmen in throwing up the sand out of the cutting appear to have taken no notice of them. For the same reason it is impossible to say whether they were found near the surface or not, or even to fix upon the exact spot whence they had been thrown, and subsequently covered up… The place where they were thus found is south of Ffynogion, in Llanfair parish'

In terms of landscape setting, the valley of the River Clwyd at this point is low lying, with the findspot of the spoons sloping gently to the west, down to the course of the river. Ffynogion house to the north occupies the edge of an elevated ridge behind which is a post-medieval earthwork.

Arguably the most significant archaeological site in the southern Vale of Clwyd is the plough-levelled Plas-Newydd Romano-British temple (NPRN 309755). This is a rare site, now a scheduled monument. Only four known or suspected temenoi are recorded in eastern Wales, at Plas-Newydd, at Forden Gaer, Montgomery, in Caersws vicus, Powys and the temple and cella at Gwehelog, Llancayo, south Wales (Davis and Driver 2014, 180)... It is highly like this major cult focus in the valley was already significant in Iron Age times, as was the case at Gwehelog, Llancayo (Davis and Driver 2014, 178–9). It is also plausible to suggest the find spot of the Ffynogion spoons is in some way associated to the nearby temenos, but without intensive new analysis or geophysical survey of the approximate findspot it will be impossible to reach any further conclusions about the circumstances of their deposition or loss..

Updated: Toby Driver, RCAHMW, November 2024

References:

Barnwell, E. L. 1862. Bronze articles supposed to be spoons. Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. VIII Third Series, 208-219.

Davis, O., and Driver, T. 2014. Llancayo Farm Roman marching camp, Usk, Monmouthshire. Archaeologia Cambrensis Volume 163.  173-184.

Driver, T. 2023. Castell Nadolig hillfort and the Penbryn Spoons: a new investigation. Archaeologia Cambrensis 127. 87-136

Way, A. 1869. Notices of certain bronze relics, of a peculiar type, assigned to the late Celtic period. Archaeological Journal 26. 52-83.

Way, A. 1870. Notices of certain bronze relics, of a peculiar type, assigned to the late Celtic period. Archaeologia Cambrensis, 199-234.