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WALLHILL ROMAN TEMPORARY CAMP

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The possible site of a Roman temporary camp or fort. The area originally encompassed by the fort was 3.2ha. The excavated remains suggest a temporary camp occupied long enough to form a focus of the local roads and for wooden buildings, rather than the tented arrangements of a marching camp.

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[SJ 8370 6195] According to Foote Gower, (1a), in 1725, a Roman temporary camp existed at a place called Wallfield [SJ 8465]. It formed a parallelogram and towards the middle of the two longest sides there were evident marks of two military roads, one pointing to Astbury and the other to Middlewich. The camp was said to have been destroyed by a tenant in 1744. Watkin and Earwaker thought that Wall Hall was a more likely site (1) and Cartlidge agrees. About 1790 his great-uncle helped to fill in the fosse, and evidence of this can still be seen. The site is at Bent Farm and the two roads mentioned by Gower still exist.

The camp has never been investigated (2).

Sited from plan (3). (1-3)

No trace of a Roman Camp was found at Wallhill and it is probable that there never was one. The "camp" indicated by Cartlidge comprises an old road running roughly N - S with a marl pit adjacent to it. The north side is a 0.7m high scarp which is probably an old field boundary. There is no trace of an embankment above this scarp and no indications that there was ever a complete enclosure. The site is on wet, sloping ground. (4)

Old field boundaries and the suggestion of a small, sub-rectangular feature, but nothing clearly definable. (5)

The alleged Roman camp of 24ha (60 acres) was re-located in 1967 when sections of the defences were cut, and again in 1970. A V-sectioned ditch 2.4 - 3.4m wide and c 1.2m deep with a clay rampart not less than 2.4m wide was located. Trial trenching in the interior located post-holes and foundation-slots of timber buildings aligned on the defences. (6-7)

This "fort" is not accepted by R A H Farrar. (8)

This site has been re-classified as part of RCHME Roman Camps in England Project. No further survey action taken. (9)

SJ 83699 61939 Roman camp at Bent Farm. The camp consists of a bank and ditch which are visible at the north west and north east corners, with the bank and ditch traceable on the northern side along the whole of its 160m length. The bank and ditch are intermittently visible along the east side where they have been partly obscured by the headland of a well defined ridge and furrow system which covers the whole of the surviving interior.
The south side has been quarried by a clay pit which was abandoned in the last century and is now ploughed away to a deep hollow south of the hedge line. This activity has removed a 20m strip of the camp's interior together with the rampart and ditch on that side.
The western side is visible for 30m before being obscured by the later ridge and furrow. It is assumed that the fence and activity in the adjacent orchard and gardens on the west side has removed any further trace of the the rampart and ditch south of this point. The eastern side is traceable for 180m before being cut off by the hedge and drain to the south of the field.
The area originally encompassed by the fort was 3.2ha. The excavated remains suggest a temporary camp occupied long enough to form a focus of the local roads and for wooden buildings rather than the tented arrangements of a marching camp. (10)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1a) General reference

Add MSS British Museum 11 338 Fos 71-72 (Foote Gower)

( 1) General reference

Watkin W T. 1886. Roman Cheshire 74, 298-9

( 2) General reference

The Cheshire Historian No. 9 1959 p24 (J.E. Gordon Cartlidge)

( 3) General reference

Gordon Cartlidge. J. E. 1915. Newbold Astbury and its History. pp6-10, plan

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 JHW 01-MAY-64

( 5) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

( 6) Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies Britannia : a journal of Romano-British and kindred studies

2 - 1971 Page(s)255

( 7) School of History, University of Leeds Northern history : a review of the history of the North of England

(G D B Jones) 3 - 1968 Page(s)3-4

( 8) General reference

Letter (R A H Farrar 18.4.85)

( 9) Humphrey Welfare and Vivien Swan 1995 Roman camps in England : the field archaeology

1994

(10) General reference

English Heritage SAM Amendment 9.11.95

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