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Air Reconnaissance in Britain, 1958–1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

J. K. St. Joseph
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Extract

During the last three years systematic application of air reconnaissance to Romano-British studies has continued: this paper provides a summary of the discoveries, bringing up to date accounts of earlier surveys already published in this Journal. The period included the remarkably dry summer of 1959, when a prolonged drought, comparable in recent years only with that of 1949, caused extreme parching of vegetation throughout July, particularly in the main river valleys of the Midlands, in the Welsh Marches and over wide areas of eastern England. This favoured archaeological air reconnaissance. Though 1960 was an exceptionally wet season, the broken weather beginning in July was in fact preceded by a dry spell in June, at least in central England, when for a few weeks the ‘crop-marks’ were very clear indeed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 1-2 , November 1961 , pp. 119 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © J. K. St. Joseph 1961. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 JRS XLI, XLIII, XLV and XLVIII. The records and photographs on which it is based are housed in the offices of the Committee for Aerial Photography of the University of Cambridge.

1a For the excavations see below, p. 175. Fig. 3 is from a drawing kindly lent by the late Dr. P. Corder. It has been found subsequently that there was no NW gate as shown on the plan, the ditchlines being continuous.

2 JRS XLI, 1951, 56.

3 ibid. 54; CW2 LIII, 1954, 49–51.

4 JRS XLV, 1955, 85; XLVIII, 1958, 87.

5 JRS XLVIII, 1958, 87–8.

6 ibid. 88; Inventory of Roxburghshire (RCHM) 1956, 11, 312, fig. 423.

7 Roy, , Military Antiquities 1793, 61Google Scholar, pl. VI; JRS XLVIII, 1958, 88.

8 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. XXXV, 1901, 173, figs. 7–8; JRS XLV, 1955.85.

9 JRS XLVII, 1957, 201; XLVIII 1958, 88; Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. XC, 1959, 93–101.

10 JRS XLI, 1951, 57; XLV, 1955, 85.

11 JRS XLVIII 1958, 89.

12 JRS XLI, 1951, 59; XLVIII 1958, 89.

13 JRS XLVIII, 1958, 89.

14 ibid., 90; PSA Scot, LXXXIX, 1958, 329–339.

15 JRS XLVIII 1958, 89.

16 ibid., 91.

17 JRS XLI, 1941, 64–5; Crawford, , The Topography of Roman Scotland, 1949, 100–2Google Scholar, fig. 26.

18 JRS XLVIII 1958, 91.

19 JRS XLV, 1955, 87; XLVIII 1958, 92, fig. 7.

20 JRS XLI, 1951, 65; XLVIII 1958, 93.

21 JRS XLIII, 1953, 84; see below, p. 173.

22 ib. 84–5, pl. IX, 2; William Salt Arch. Soc. Proc. 1927 (1929), 185–206.

23 JRS XLVIII 1958, 95.

24 Trans. Woolhope Nat. F.C. XXXVI, 1959, 210–18; excavation-report on the gate forthcoming See below, p. 171.

25 ib. 87–99; JRS XLIX, 1959, 222.

26 Coxe, W., An historical tour in Monmouthshire II, 1801, 402Google Scholar, and conventionalized plan on plate facing p. 412.

27 J. Ward, The Roman fort of Gellygaer (1903); Nash-Williams, , The Roman frontier in Wales (1954), 73–7Google Scholar; the enclosure is marked ‘Roman camp’ on the 6-inch Ordnance Map, Glamorgan XX SW (1922).

28 JRS XXXIV, 1944, 76, where they are noted under Heol-ddu Uchaf, Bargoed.

29 Mr. A. H. A. Hogg kindly drew my attention to this site, which he had noted on photographs taken by the Royal Air Force.

30 Arch. Camb. 6 VII, 1907, 129–174; Nash-Williams, The Roman frontier 1954, 69–7.

31 This is the same as the ‘signal-station’ marked on ed. 3 of the Ordnance Survey Map of Roman Britain 1956. But the correct grid-reference is as given above, and the parish Dylais Higher. See below, p. 129, n. 44,

32 Identified by officers of the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments for Wales; JRS XLIX, 1959, 102.

33 JRS XLVIII 1958, 97, under Loughor.

34 Nash-Williams, , The Roman frontier (1954), 89–91.Google Scholar

35 ib. 87–9, map fig. 43; see also Inventory of Carmarthenshire (RCHM) 1917, 248.

36 Nash-Williams, , The Roman frontier (1954), 40–2.Google Scholar

37 25-inch Ordnance Maps, Cardiganshire, sheet XXVI, 12 (2nd ed. 1905).

38 Arch. Comb. 4 X, 1879, 56. I am grateful to Mr. Hogg for this reference.

39 Inventory of Montgomeryshire (RCHM) 1911, 104; Arch. Camb. 6th ser. XIV, 1914, 205–220; Nash-Williams, , The Roman frontier (1954), 56–8.Google Scholar

40 These measurements from a recent survey agree closely with the excavators' plan (Arch. Comb. 1914, 207: 285 ft. from E to W by 394 ft.) but by some slip the rampart-lengths given in the text of the report (p. 206) are in error. The error has been perpetuated in later accounts.

41 Inventory of Montgomeryshire (RCHM) 1911, 11; Nash-Williams, , The Roman frontier (1954), 48Google Scholar; JRS L, 212. The site was examined by me together with Professor I. A. Richmond and Mr. S. S. Frere.

42 Inventory of Montgomeryshire (RCHM) 1911, 165.

43 See below, p. 167, for recent excavations.

44 Hirfynnydd, 77 ft. by 75½ ft.; Pant-teg-uchaf approx. 87 ft. by 81 ft.; Pen-y-Crogbren 82 ft. by 73 ft.

45 Bull. Bd. Celtic Studies XVIII, 1959, 208–220, 397; JRS L. 211. For a camp at the head of the Wnion valley, see below, p. 157.

46 The site was noted and surveyed while examining the line of the Roman road in the Wnion valley with Professor I.A. Richmond and Mr. S. S. Frere.

47 The remains of a road on the south side of Cefn-y-Clawdd (SH 760140) and across the watershed to the Llefenni valley do not carry conviction as Roman work.

48 Inventory of Merionethshire (RCHM) 1921, 135–8; Nash-Williams, , The Roman frontier 1954, 42–6.Google Scholar

49 Inventory of Merionethshire (RCHM) 1921, 150–2; Nash-Williams, , The Roman frontier (1954), 35–7Google Scholar; Arch. Camb. 93, 1938, 192–211.

50 Both earthworks are marked on the large-scale plan in Arch. Camb. 93, 1938 (folding plan facing p. 192), but the gates are not shown, nor the works identified as practice-camps.

51 Bull. Bd. Celtic Studies XVIII, 1960, 397–402; JRS, 1960, 211.

52 Arch. Comb. 7 III, 1923, 211–224.

53 Fenton, , Pembrokeshire 1811, 1, 331–3Google Scholar; Haverfield, , Military aspects of Roman Wales (Cymmrodorion Soc. 1910), 113–4Google Scholar; Inventory of Pembrokeshire (RCHM), 1925, 116–7, fig. 120a. 25-inch Ordnance Maps, Pembrokeshire, sheet XVI, 11 (1907), where the site is marked ‘Roman villa’.

54 Ant. J. XL, 1960, 1–24 and esp. plan, fig. 1; for earlier work at Verulamium, see Soc. Ant. Res. Repts. XI, 1936. JRS L, 225, fig. 27; below, 180 ff, figs. 27, 28.

55 JRS XLIII, 1953, 89; XLVIII 1958, 97; see also G. T. Boon, Roman Silchester (1957).

56 Antiquity III, 1929, 182–7 and plate facing p. 183.

57 Viet. Co. Hist. Hunts. I, 1926, 228; Inventory of Huntingdonshire (RCHM) 1926, 52–4; JRS XLVIII 1958, 98.

58 For accounts of roads near Castor see Antiquity VII, 1933, 292, pl. III; Ant. J. XV, 1935, 113–8, pls. XIII–XIV.

59 Artis, Durobrivae (1828), pls. 1 and XXXIX; VCH Northants. 1, 1902, 171, 207–12; JRS XLVIII, 139, fig. 14; for potteries south of the Nene see VCH Hunts. 1, 1926, 228–233; JRS XLIX, 1959, 117–8, pl. IX. The impression conveyed by the photographs is that of an ‘industrial suburb’ like that described by Professor Hawkes to west of Colchester, , Soc. Ant. Res. Repts. XIV, 1947, 34–8, 53–4.Google Scholar

60 JRS XLIII, 1953, 91; see also VCH Notts. 11, 1910, 11–15.

61 VCH Worcs. I, 1901, 221, with references there given; information in the Haverfield Library, Ashmolean Museum. Mr. H. E. M. Icely of Bickley, Kent, has collected much material which he hopes to publish.

62 JRS XLIII, 1953. 94–5

63 This is perhaps the villa ‘in Sutton field, opposite Water Newton’ illustrated in Artis, , Durobrivae 1828, pls. XXXIII, XXXVGoogle Scholar; VCH Northants. 1, 1902, 174.

64 JRS XLVIII, 1958, 99–100.

65 Arch. J. CIV, 1948, 27–81.

66 Proc. Prehist. Soc. VI, 1940, 30 ff.

67 Inventory of Hertfordshire (RCHM) 1911, 38; JRS XLV, 1955, 89.

68 VCH Oxfordshire I, 1939, 298, 342, pl. XIV B. Oxoniensia VIII and IX (1943–4), 47 ff.

69 JRS XLVIII 1958, 100, pl. XVI, 1.

70 A Matter of Time (RCHM) 1960, pl. Ia and p. 54; see also JRS XLIX, 1959, 117 f., fig. 14, for a comparable site.

71 JRS XLV, 1955, 90.