More information : Visible on air photographs are: (centred NY 99641430) the remains of banks forming a rectangular enclosure with, at 'A' (NY 99501414) a small circular feature with dark centre; (centred NY 99391412) a rectangular ditched enclosure with, at 'B' (NY 99311417) a small rectangular feature. From these features the remains of a hollow-way lead to the south west at NY 98781381. (1)
The rectangular enclosure (NY 99641430) is formed by an earthen bank (0.6m. high spread to a maximum width of about 5.0m) ploughed out in several places and along its south boundary now mainly a south facing scarp. The area is covered with ridge and furrow and these are almost certainly boundary banks associated with it. The enclosure (NY 99391412) is a continuation of this bank system with ditches.
'A' is an earthen mound about 18.0m. diameter and 0.7m high (probing revealed a possible stony base about 0.4m. below the surface). with a hollowed centre: too 'well preserved' for a barrow and almost certainly a mill mound. 'B' is a combination of natural gulleys and hillocky ground into which the ditches to the east drain before entering a small stream to the west. The 'hollow way' to the west is the remains of a track running up the hill side. It has been much reduced by ploughing and it is not possible to say if it continued to the east.
No survey action. (2)
New aerial photography taken in July 2006 led to a re-appraisal of the earthworks. Ground survey has shown that the rectangular enclosure noted by Authority 1 is a Roman temporary camp of possible Flavian date.
The temporary camp at Cow Close is sub-rectangular in shape and formed by a single rampart and ditch. Its dimensions, measured across the crest of the bank, are of the order of 350m by 240m, giving an internal area of 8.3ha. The camp is situated at c.300m OD on a S-facing slope, a little below the crest of a ridge, and commands extensive views across the countryside to the E and S. To the N, where the ground rises to the crest of the ridge some 50m beyond the rampart of the camp, there are wide views over Deepdale. By contrast, the view to the W is more restricted, reaching up the N side of valley for no more than 1km before being interrupted by a southwards projecting spur known as Clint Top. From a tactical point of view, therefore, the camp is well sited and the topography imposes few restrictions on the achievement of a regular plan.
The camp is crossed from W to E by a slight depression containing an area of wet ground that is fed by a spring and drained by a ditch which cuts through the E side of the camp. On the S side of this hollow the ground rises once more to form a slight terrace before again dropping down towards the A67 road. The southern rampart of the camp has been carefully sited so as to follow the S-facing edge of this terrace and is thus raised as far as possible above the descending slope to the S. At the same time it runs parallel with the modern A67 road. While this may correspond to the line of the Roman road leading from Bowes towards Dere Street, its precise course has not been verified for the first 2 miles beyond the present village . If the A67 does indeed reproduce the course of the Roman road, it seems unlikely that the camp was in contemporary use with it, given the degree of separation there is between them. In this case the camp is most likely to pre-date the road whose construction is probably broadly contemporary with the fort at Bowes and therefore late first century in date (see below).
To-day, the defences of the Roman camp extend over seven different fields whose boundaries all date later than October 1768 when `Bowes Pastures' was enclosed following Act of Parliament in 1766. The Enclosure Award, dated 12 October of that year, refers to 'Bowes Cow Close and the said open grounds and pastures intended to be divided' suggesting that there was at least one pre-existing close in this area to which the name Cow Close had already been applied. Most of the boundaries set out in 1768 consist of earth and stone banks topped by thorn hedges and accompanied by a single ditch on the W side. At every point where these field boundaries intersect with the perimeter of the camp, it can be clearly shown that the latter is the earlier feature. What is also apparent is that the precise form in which the camp's defences now appear has been largely dictated by the contrasting history of landuse of the different fields in the period following enclosure. Thus, whereas most of the fields laid out in the 18th century have been subjected to narrow ridge and furrow ploughing, there is no evidence to suggest that the field containing the westernmost part of the camp has ever been cultivated in this way. And while in some fields these early plough rigs are still visible as earthworks on the ground, in the two largest fields, covering the whole central section of the camp, they and the camp perimeter have been all but completely levelled by ploughing and reseeding in recent years. In fields where the ridge and furrow survives in the form of earthworks, the camp perimeter is also relatively well preserved, even when it has been over-ploughed or used as a headland. However, where this has happened, there has been a noticeable lowering and spreading of the bank material and a corresponding infilling of the ditch. At the same time, on the N and S sides of the camp, where the plough rigs run onto or cut across the rampart and ditch at right angles, the crest of the bank and the outer lip of the ditch take on an undulating appearance which, in some instances, can give the misleading impression of a genuine gateway.
Due to the presence of impervious sandstone rock close beneath the surface, there are numerous springs and issues of water in the vicinity of the camp, some of which emerge within the defences and others outside it. To improve the drainage, both stone-lined and tile drains have been laid across the fields at various times in the past some of which have been laid along the ditches of the camp. These drainage operations, and the various episodes of ploughing, have either obscured or destroyed all evidence of gateways through the ramparts of the camp and any accompanying tituli there may have been. In its present state only one gap in the centre of the E side can be considered as plausibly indicating an original gate and even here there could be doubt due to the presence of a buried field drain.
In the northernmost of the two large fields which have been ploughed and re-seeded within the last ten years, the camp ditch can still be made out as a faint depression in the ground surface. In the field immediately to the S, however, the perimeter has been completely levelled and is no longer visible even as a faint earthwork. Here its course has been mapped from air photographs taken in 2006 which show a band of slightly darker colouration running across the field, presumably reflecting the stronger growth of the grass over the more moisture-retentive sediments of the ditch at what was a time of severe drought. As will be evident from the plan, this feature is in precise alignment with the course of the ditch in the fields to the E, and also lies parallel with the northern perimeter of the camp.
The camp perimeter is best preserved over those parts of the N and S sides which have been least damaged by ploughing and are not overlain by field boundaries. In these sections the rampart appears as a spread bank 4.5 to 6.5m broad with an internal height of 0.25 to 0.3m and the ditch as a linear depression measuring from 2.5m to 5.5m wide and 0.1 to 0.3m in depth. Given that the effect of ploughing has been to widen the profiles of both bank and ditch, it is likely that their original dimensions were towards the lower ends of their respective ranges.
Compared with other parts of the camp perimeter, the W side is not well preserved and apart from the NW corner and a short section of the rampart and ditch to the S of it little of the defences remain in anything like their original form. Several reasons can be advanced to explain why this is so. In the first place the rampart, and to a lesser extent the ditch, has been mutilated by a series of superimposed boundaries, represented either by terraces or by banks and ditches, one of which is shown as a hedge line on the first (1857) edition of the OS six-inch map. The physical remains of these boundaries are slight and for that reason they are difficult to interpret but some may have formed small enclosures or closes within the western portion of the Roman camp. Whether this was so or not, there can be no doubt that some at least of these boundaries pre-date the field pattern set out in 1768 since they are cut by the nearest hedge line to the E. However, as ploughing has erased all traces of these pre-enclosure boundaries in the adjacent field, there is now no way of determining the size or shape of these putative early closes (or close). On the other hand, mention of the name `Cow Close' in the 1768 Enclosure Award also suggests the existence of a `cow pasture' somewhere in this area. Indeed this would not be surprising as many upland communities, in the Yorkshire Dales and further afield, possessed enclosures of this kind for the communal over-wintering of cattle and the location would be a convenient one situated as it is just beyond the limits of the medieval open fields belonging to the village of Bowes. Be that as it may, there can be no doubt that a pattern of pre-enclosure boundaries did exist in this area, some of which still survive as visible earthworks in fields on the W side of Cotherstone Lane.
As well as disturbance to the rampart caused by these pre-enclosure boundaries, the ditch on the W side of the camp has suffered erosion from surface water issuing out of several springs situated close to the NW corner of the camp. The damage has been further compounded by the laying of a stone-lined drain in the bottom of the ditch which has probably also contributed to the obliteration of the SW corner.
A small, oval-shaped earthwork, formed by a continuous earth bank with faint traces of an external ditch on the NW side, stands outside the camp on the W side (A - see Authority 1). The encircling bank stands up to 0.45m high with overall dimensions of 17.0m by 14.0m. Within it the interior is hollowed to a depth of 0.4m and, in the absence of any signs of later disturbance, this must be considered as an original feature of the earthwork. As the structure stands on the already eroded outer lip of the camp ditch, it is clear that it is of comparatively recent date though its precise date and function remain obscure. Possible interpretations include a stack stand or perhaps a mill mound.
The above is extracted from a report 'A Newly identified Roman Temporary Camp at Cow Close, near Bowes, Co Durham' (by Tim Gates and Stewart Ainsworth) submitted for publication to Britannia in 2007.
Surveyed at 1:2500 (3)
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