| Summary : The buried remains of Farnsfield Roman camp. The site is situated on the summit of a broad ridge and affords open views of the surrounding landscape except to the south where visibility is restricted by a ridge less than half a kilometre away. No upstanding remains survive but the buried remains of the monument show clearly as a crop mark on aerial photographs. The camp is sub-rectangular in plan measuring between 206 metres and 218 metres north east to south west by 182 metres and 186 metres north west to south east. The camp is defined by a ditch which encloses an area of 3.9 hectares. Access would have been gained through entrances in the north east and south west sides. Excavation of a section of the north east side revealed a gate approximately 7.5 metres wide. The ditch, which is 'V' shaped in profile, measures 2.8 metres wide and 1.8 metre deep with a cleaning slot 0.1 metre wide at the bottom. Excavatuions also revealed the remains of an internal bank which, set back from the ditch by 0.3 metres, had an unusual base formed by filling a shallow trench with gravel. The bank itself was constructed of turves and the base of the internal edge defined by a line of pebbles. At the entrance the bank extended just under 1 metre beyond the end of the ditch, reducing the width of the gate to about 5.75 metres. Both Iron Age and Romano-British pottery has also been recovered from the site. Scheduled. |
More information : (SK 63865574 - sited from plan). Cropmarks of a Roman marching camp, ten and a half acres in area, discovered in 1976. (1-2)
A Roman fort, probably of mid-first century date and possibly associated with the Fosse Way (RR 5f). (3)
Excavations were carried out on the Roman camp at Farnsfield in September 1978 by Swarbrick and Turner, when three trenches were cut (see plan). An entrance was identified on the north-east ditch but no post holes were revealed. Romano-British pottery sherds and a basal sherd of Iron Age date were recovered from the ditches. (4)
This camp has been re-assessed in connection with RCHME's survey and publication of Roman Camps in England. The following descriptive account is taken from the published text.
The cropmarks of a camp were discovered from the air in 1976, astride Longland Lane, 1 km SW of Farnsfield (Riley 1977, 191 (see auth 1); NMR AP SK 6355/76/14, 6355/108 (5a)). The camp occupies an almost level site on the summit of a broad ridge in gently undulating countryside at 66 m above OD. To the N and NW the ground falls gently away, and only to the S is the open aspect restricted by a ridge, less than half a kilometre away. There are no Roman roads in the immediate vicinity, but the vexillation fortress of Osmanthorpe lies about 4km to the E.
The camp is not quite rectangular, measuring between about 206 m and 218 m from NE to SW, by about 182 m to 186 m transversely, and covering approximately 3.9 ha (9.6 acres). The NE and SW sides each have a central gate; any entrance on the NW perimeter would have been obliterated by Longland Lane. No traverses are visible. The highest part of the site coincides with the SW gate and, by analogy, the camp may therefore have faced NE; the N corner occupies a slight rise, a factor which may have conditioned the overall alignement of the camp.
In 1978 three trenches were cut across the NE side and the E corner (Swarbrick and Turner 1982 (5b)). At the former, a gate about 5.7 m wide was located. At this point the V-shaped ditch had clearly defined rectangular terminals and was 2.8 m wide and 1.8 m deep; there was a cleaning slot 0.1 m wide at the bottom. The bank was set back 0.3 m from the lip of the ditch, and had an unusual base formed by filling a shallow trench, 2.2 m wide and about 0.2 m deep, withgravel. Vestigial fragments of turf from the bank itself, overlain by similar gravelly material, had spilled over the berm; at the rear, the base of the rampart was marked by a line of pebbles set at a steep angle. At the entrance, the bank extended just under 1 m beyond the end of the ditch, reducing the overall width of the gate to about 5.7 m. The excavation of the E corner located the remains of turves, measuring an average 400 mm by 500 mm by 50 mm, which had slipped into the ditch from the adjacent bank. Pottery recovered from the ditches comprised a small number of sherds of both Romano-British and Iron Age types, none closley datable. Full information is included in the NMR Archive. (5)
Additional reference. (6)
Publsihed reference. (7) |