More information : [NY 92981249] Earthwork [GT] (1)
"? Roman Signal Station" (2)
"? Roman Signal Station" (3)
On Bowes Moor, 250 yards east of the New Spital, now the Bowes Moor Hotel, and 26 yards to the north of the centre line of the modern highway here superimposed upon the Roman road: a little oblong post set parallel with the road line. This work, as was shown by a trial trench cut in 1933, has a turf rampart 10' thick with a single V-shaped ditch, also 10' wide, with upcast mound outside it. The work measures 60' by 47' over the ramparts and has a narrow entrance, now some 6' wide, in the middle of the long side, nearest the road. The angles are rounded externally but squared internally, like those of a Turf-Wall milecastle. There are no surface indications of internal buildings, as if these had been not of stone but of timber. The outlook is good towards the west, covering the whole pass up to Rey Cross, where the road begins to swing round the shoulder of Beldoo Hill, while the south side of the pass is visible as far as the north-east slopes of Moudy Mea. Towards the east, however, a low spur at Vale House impedes the view toward Bowes, and here another earthwork occurs [See NY 91 SW 6] [Richmond considers the Bowes Moor earthwork and the Vale House spur earthwork [NY 91 SW 6] as Signal Station and Satellite respectively. His illustration (Fig.63) is subscribed "Plan of Signal Stations at Roper Castle and Bowes Moor", and in describing the Vale House spur earthwork he says "a Roman Signalling Station auxiliary to that at Bowes Moor".] (4)
As described by Richmond. The inner rampart is about 0.6m high. The outer rampart is only visible in the N and the E.
Surveyed at 1:10000. (5)
Roman works, of similar plan associated with observation and signalling are now known at Redshaw Burn in Scotland, classified as a fortlet, and Hirfynnydd in Wales, but the areas within the ramparts there are appreciably more, some 20 by 17m and 16 by 16m respectively. The signal-fortlet at Outwards, Ayrshire some 15m square internally, shows that posts of these larger dimensions could contain quite a substantial timber barracks, in this case without a special tower. (6)
No change. (7)
NY 929 125. Earthwork NE of New Spital. Scheduled No. DU 112. (8) |