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Air Reconnaissance in Britain, 1965–68

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

J. K. St Joseph
J. K. St Joseph
Affiliation:
Committee for Aerial Photography, Cambridge
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Extract

The results of the air reconnaissance here summarized continue from earlier surveys already described in this Journal. The weather was not particularly favourable for archaeological reconnaissance during any of these four summers, while the period May to October 1968 was, over much of England, one of the wettest of this century. In Scotland, however, the summer of 1968 was comparatively dry with correspondingly favourable development of crop marks.

Most of the new information has been gained in the military districts of Wales and the north. Roman military remains tend to be standardized and to form part of a system. Thus both temporary and permanent works may often be identified from a minimum of evidence without the necessity of the whole site being visible, while the geographical distribution, so far as it is known, often suggests where further reconnaissance may profitably be made. Descriptions of military sites and their full significance in the system to which they belong, call for continual reference to local geography, so that the text is best considered in conjunction with appropriate maps such as the 1 inch to a mile series of the Ordnance Survey. Nearly all the features described have been examined on the ground: except when noted otherwise, no remains are ordinarily to be seen on the surface. The records and photographs on which this account is based are housed in the offices of the Committee for Aerial Photography of the University of Cambridge.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 59 , November 1969 , pp. 104 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © J. K. St Joseph 1969. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 JRS XLI, XLIII, XLV, XLVII, LI and LV.

2 These references are to the National Grid.

3 JRS LV, 1965, 74–6Google Scholar, fig. 2.

4 Antiquity XL, 1966, 300–303Google Scholar, fig. 1.

5 Derbysh. Arch. J. LXXXVII, 1967, 165Google Scholar. The section was dug by Mr. M. Todd in 1968.

6 Ordnance Survey Map of Hadrian's Wall, 1964.

7 The earthworks were noticed on R.A.F. photographs by Mr. W. M. Johnson, whose letter to Mr. F. Lepper enquiring about their character, was passed by him to Mr. D. R. Wilson and myself. R.A.F. photos. 541A/485, nos. 3081–2, taken 24 June 1949.

8 H. MacLauchlan, Eastern Branch of the Watling Street 1864, sheets i–ii, and accompanying Memoir, 11–12.

9 Hafemann, D., Beiträge zur Siedlungsgeographie des römischen Britannien I, 1956, 150Google Scholar.

10 The identification as Roman fortlets of sites revealed by crop marks near the Devil's Causeway at Hartburn and at Tweedmouth (JRS XLI, 1951, 56Google Scholar) cannot now be substantiated. See A.A.4 XLVI 1968, 51–67Google Scholar for a discussion of settlement sites, many of them sub-rectangular, in south Northumberland. Recent air photographs of Tweedmouth show the S. side to be bowed rather than straight. The fragment of a late third-century mortarium does not imply that the site is military.

11 A.A.4 XIII, 1936, 184–196Google Scholar; also Richmond, I. A. in History of Northumberland XV, 1940, 82 ffGoogle Scholar.

12 JRS LV, 1965, 78Google Scholar.

13 Dr. J. P. Wild has pointed out that this form is to be preferred to tutulus: his note is to be published in a forthcoming volume of Arch. Camb. I understand from Dr. R. M. Ogilvie that the word derives from titulus meaning a notice or label.

14 JRS LV, 1965, 78Google Scholar.

15 JRS XLVIII, 1958, 88Google Scholar; LI, 1961, 121. Dr. K. Steer kindly told me of the crop marks visible on photographs by the R.A.F.

16 JRS LV, 1965, 80Google Scholar.

17 In the opinion of Miss Anne Robertson who kindly examined it.

18 Roman occupation of south-western Scotland, ed. S. N. Miller 1952, 46, pl. xix.

19 JRS LV, 1965, 79Google Scholar.

20 JRS LV, 1965, 80Google Scholar.

21 St. Boswells, supra, p. 107, c. 1300 ft. × 1800 ft.: Pathhead, c. 1325 ft. × 1750 ft., JRS XLVIII, 1958, 88Google Scholar; LI, 1961, 121. This 4¾ miles over easy terrain may be contrasted with the 4 miles that separate the camps at St. Harmon and Esgair-perfedd, infra, p. 123. There, the effective marching distance is nearer 6 miles, and, in addition, the route involves the crossing of the river Wye and a steep 1,000 ft. climb.

22 JRS LV, 1965, 81Google Scholar.

23 Ibid.

24 JRS XL, 1950, 92Google Scholar; XLI, 1951, 64.

25 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. LXXIII, 1939, 150Google Scholar.

26 JRS XLI, 1951, 63Google Scholar; XLVIII, 1958, 91; LV, 1965, 82.

27 The IInd legion by an inscription, the VIth legion by stamped tiles.

28 JRS XLV, 1955, 87Google Scholar.

29 JRS LV, 1965, 83Google Scholar.

30 JRS XLVIII, 1958, 92Google Scholar, fig. 7.

31 JRS XLVIII, 1958, 93Google Scholar.

32 JRS XLVIII, 1958, 92Google Scholar, fig. 7.

33 Camp (3) at Ardoch (see fig. 4) is taken to be later than camp (2).

34 It may be added that six members of the 63-acre series, Ardoch, Forteviot, Kirkbuddo, Keithock, Marcus and Innerpeffray, are known to have a small ‘annexe’ joined to the main camp.

35 An as of Caracalla struck in A.D. 208, R.I.C. IV (1), 254 No. 441; Mattingly, H., Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, V, 1950, pp. clxxiv and 353Google Scholar; Num. Chron. 1931, 137–50.

36 Herodian, lii, 14, 5; Dio, lxxvii, 13, 1.

37 For a plan of Newstead see Inventory of Roxburghshire (RCHM) 1956, 11, 316, fig. 426.

38 JRS LV, 1965, 85Google Scholar.

39 See also V. E. Nash-Williams, The Roman Frontier in Wales 2 (1969), 84–5, fig. 41.

39a I. Scollar, Archäologie aus der Luft, 1965, pls. 18–19.

40 JRS XLVIII, 1958, 97Google Scholar. For the significance of the Caersws neighbourhood at the time of the conquest see Antiquity XXXV, 1961, p. 270Google Scholar, fig. 1.

41 JRS LVII, 1967, 174Google Scholar.

42 Enclosure C on fig. 8 is the small camp (SN 920500) described in JRS XLIII, 1958, 96Google Scholar.

42a Bull. Bd. Celtic Studies XXII, 1967, 274–6Google Scholar.

43 V. E. Nash-Williams, The Roman frontier in Wales 2 (1969), 97–8 and 200; JRS LI, 1961, 127Google Scholar. The earthwork there described presumably defines an annexe to the fort. Excavations in the field Cae'r Castell, in 1969, were under the direction of Mr. J. L. Davies.

44 As Mr. G. C. Boon has kindly informed me.

45 JRS LI, 1961, 126Google Scholar. For practice camps in Wales see Davies, R. W., Arch. Camb. CXVII (1969), 103–118Google Scholar.

46 JRS LV, 1965, 86Google Scholar.

47 Hoare, R. Colt, The Ancient History of Wiltshire vol. II (Roman Era), 1821, 93–5Google Scholar, pl. facing p. 94; JRS LVIII, 1968, 201Google Scholar.

48 Inventory of Hunts. (RCHM) 1926, 52–4; JRS XLIII, 1953, 91Google Scholar; XLVIII, 1958, 98.

49 W. Stukeley, Itin. Cur., 1724, 88–9, Pl. 87; V.C.H. Notts. II, 1910, 19–23Google Scholar fig. 5.

50 JRS XLIII, 1953, 82Google Scholar.

51 JRS LI, 1961Google Scholar, pl. X 2.

52 Gent. Mag. NS. XV, 1863, pt. 2, 627Google Scholar; XVI, 1864, pt. 1, 86–8; XVII, 1864, pt. 2, 85–7 with plan; M. J. T. Lewis, Temples in Roman Britain, 1966, fig. 109.

53 Antiquity, XLII, 1968, 46–7Google Scholar, pl. xi.

54 For these settlements see especially H. C. Bowen and P. J. Fowler, Romano-British Rural Settlements in Dorset and Wiltshire, pp. 43–67, with plans of Meriden Down and Chisenbury Warren, in Rural Settlements in Roman Britain, ed. C. Thomas, 1966.

55 Rural Settlements in Roman Britain, ed. C. Thomas, 1966, 94–6, fig. 11.

56 See Fowler, P. J., Proc. Univ. Bristol Spel. Soc. II, 1968, 209–36Google Scholar.

57 Inventory of Westmorland (RCHM) 1936, see especially under the parishes of Asby, Crosby Garrett and Crosby Ravensworth.