| Summary : Cropmark of a Roman temporary camp of unusual and irregular layout at Perry Farm, Whittington. It sits on a low rise, at just over 85 m above OD, on the NE side of the valley of the River Perry, a tributary of the Severn. The vexillation fortress at Rhyn Park lies 8 km to the NW. The camp measures about 460 m from E to W by 330 m transversely and encloses an area of about 15.3 ha (38 acres). There is poorly drained ground on its E, W, and S sides, but its elevation, though relatively slight, nevertheless provides good all-round visibility, particularly to the S and E. Almost all of the perimeter has been recorded, apart from the S part of the W side which is overlain by Perry Farm, and the W part of the N side. In contrast to the familiar rounded shape of the NW and SE corners, the NE angle is rather sharp and obtuse. The E side of the camp changes direction about 15 m N of the midpoint. Here a narrow break in the line of the ditch most probably marks an entrance, the only one tentatively identified. Just to the N of this, a sudden offset in the ditch may represent the point where a SW to NE drain crosses it, though the precise reason for this effect is unclear. The layout of the camp makes careful use of local topographical details and its unusual shape is undoubtedly a corollary of this. |
More information : The greater part of the outline of a Roman temporary camp near Perry Farm, centred SJ 351303, has been established by air photography. A gate is indicated on the east side where the ditch changes direction through a few degrees at the mid point. Dimensions: east to west, 1550 feet; north to south, 1075 feet; area enclosed nearly 40 acres. Circles and enclosures have been previously noted in the vicinity of Perry Farm. (1-2)
Nothing visible. (3-4)
Brief description - no further information. (5)
The site occupies a natural rise of ground with a gently-undulating summit under pasture and arable, giving all-round visibility over the surrounding countryside. Nothing can be seen on the ground. (6)
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.
A camp of unusual and irregular layout at Perry Farm, Whittington, a little over 5 km E of Oswestry, has been recorded by aerial photography from 1969 onwards (Baker 1972, 30-1 (7a); St Joseph 1973, 236 (see auth 1); NMR AP SJ 3530/37/10/74-81 (7b)). It sits on a low rise, at just over 85 m above OD, on the NE side of the valley of the River Perry, a tributary of the Severn. The vexillation fortress at Rhyn Park lies 8 km to the NW.
The camp measures about 460 m from E to W by 330 m transversely and encloses an area of about 15.3 ha (38 acres). There is poorly drained ground on its E, W, and S sides, but its elevation, though relatively slight, nevertheless provides good all-round visibility, particularly to the S and E. Almost all of the perimeter has been recorded, apart from the S part of the W side which is overlain by Perry Farm, and the W part of the N side. In contrast to the familiar rounded shape of the NW and SE corners, the NE angle is rather sharp and obtuse. The E side of the camp changes direction about 15 m N of the midpoint. Here a narrow break in the line of the ditch most probably marks an entrance, the only one tentatively identified. Just to the N of this, a sudden offset in the ditch may represent the point where a SW to NE drain crosses it, though the precise reason for this effect is unclear.
The layout of the camp makes careful use of local topographical details and its unusual shape is undoubtedly a corollary of this. The N, S and E defences and part of the W side all occupy the crests of the rise, from which the ground falls away quite sharply by between 1.4 m and 6 m to what must once have been marshland. Only the N part of the W ditch lies slightly back from the edge of a natural scarp. The change in alignment of the E side at the gate and the obtuse angle of the NE corner relate to a pronounced local hollow, at least 1.4 m deep, immediately E of the NE angle. It seems likely that when the camp was planned, the E side to the S of the gate was laid out approximately parallel to the W side. However, the presence of the hollow meant that the position NE angle had to be set back farther to the W than intended in order to avoid it. In 1972 trenches were cut across the N and W sides of the camp near the NW corner and to the W of Berghill Lane (Day 1978 (7c)). A V-shaped ditch about 1.4m wide and 0.8m deep was recorded on the N perimeter, but later activity, perhaps the recutting of the ditch as a drain, had distorted the profile of the W defences. No information was obtained about the adjacent rampart, as the areas excavated were insufficiently large.
The effect of the original earthworks of the camp upon the later landscape is apparent only along the N side, where the lane to Keeper's Cottage evidently ran along the rampart for about 150 m. Just over 120 m to the N of the camp is the strongly defined cropmark of a rectilinear ditched enclosure, probably an Iron Age or Romano-British settlement, with at least one other less clearly delineated compound, and perhaps a field system, attatched. Some of the less distinct and more random cropmarks over the whole area, including that occupied by the camp, may be of natural origin. Full information is included in the NMR Archive. (7)
Published source. (8) |