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Air Reconnaissance of Southern Britain*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

J. K. St. Joseph
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Extract

This paper, a companion to one printed in vol. XLI of the Journal, describes discoveries made by air reconnaissance during the eight summers 1945–52 in the southern half of Roman Britain. The area concerned, extending from the English Channel to Yorkshire, embraces the whole of the civil district of the province and the highland regions of Wales and the Pennines that were throughout much of the Roman occupation under direct military control (pl. VIII). There is a broad difference, too, in the terrain of these two parts. The civil district corresponds to the lowland zone of Britain, which includes the most fertile soils and to-day the largest proportion of arable land. In Wales and the Pennines grass and moorland predominate. This difference is reflected in the results obtained by air reconnaissance. In the Midlands and the south, structures of the Roman period do not commonly survive above ground in open country, and by far the largest number of new discoveries have come from observation of crop marks, revealing features otherwise hidden. In Wales and the Pennines the aerial camera has recorded military remains, already known as they are visible on the surface as earthworks; and here additions to knowledge have come when such a site happened to be under a cereal crop rather than grass, or when earthworks were seen that escaped previous notice on the ground. The scale of the flying has varied much from one year to another in the period under review. In 1945 and 1946 the flying over southern Britain only amounted to a few hours; there were rather more in 1947, but most of the results here described were obtained in the years 1948–1951. This period included the exceptionally dry summer of 1949, when many features were seen that have not been visible at any other time.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 1-2 , November 1953 , pp. 81 - 97
Copyright
Copyright ©J. K. St. Joseph 1953. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

*

This paper has been published with the aid of a generous subvention from the Council of British Archaeology.

References

1 Crawford, O. G. S. and Keiller, A., Wessex from the Air, 1928, 36–41, pl. 1Google Scholar; JRS XL, 1950, pl. VIII, 1; XLII, 1952, 99; below, p. 124.

2 The references are to the National Grid.

3 JRS XXXV, 1945, 82.

4 Hawkes, C. F. C., Antiquity XIII, 1939, 178–190 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; I. D. Margary, ibid., 455–8, hence JRS XXIX, 1939, 208–9.

5 Ant. J. XV, 1935, 113–18.

6 Vict. Co. Hist. (= VCH) Staffordshire I, 1908, 103–6, with map; R. Mott, Letocetum 1929.

7 JRS XXXVIII, 1948, 89; Trans. Birmingham Arch. Soc. LXIX, 1953, 50–52. Flavian pottery was obtained from the excavations.

8 JRS XXXVIII, 1948, 89.

9 ibid.

10 JRS XXXVIII, 1948, 89. Trans. Birmingham Arch. Soc. LXIX, 1952, 53–56.

11 William Salt Arch. Soc. Proc. 1927 (1929), 185–206; JRS XIX, 1929, 194.

12 VCH Shropshire I, 1908, 379–381, with sketch-plan. The dimensions are given as 400 ft. square.

13 Arch, Camb. LXXXII, 1927, 333–354; LXXXIV, 1929, 100–139; JRS XVII, 1927, 186; XVIII, 1928, 192; XIX, 1929, 181.

14 Montgomery Coll. XLII, 1932, 17–67.

15 Arch. Camb. 6th ser., XI, 1911, 411–420; XII, 183–198; XIV, 1914, 1–58.

16 Archaeologia, XVII, 1814, 168–172 and map, dated Sept., 1811, on pl. XII.

17 Arch. Camb. XCI, 1936, 69–73.

18 O.S. 6-inch maps, Brecknock XXV NE; F. Haverfield, Cymmrodorion Soc. Trans., 1910, 62–3; R. E. M. Wheeler, Prehistoric and Roman Wales, 1925, 220, fig. 93.

19 Inventory of Radnorshire (R.Comm. Hist. Mons.), 1913, 33–4.

20 Inventory of Montgomeryshire (R. Comm. Hist. Mons.), 1911, 104; Arch. Camb. 6th ser., XIV, 1914, 205–220.

21 Inventory of Merionethshire (R. Comm. Hist. Mons.), 1921, 157–160; Haverfield, o.c., 46–7.

22 Arch. Comb. XCIII, 1938, 192–211.

23 VCH Derbyshire I, 1905, 261.

24 JRS XXXV, 1945, 84. The site lies just within Nottinghamshire.

25 Proc. Leeds Phil. Soc. I, 1928, 261–284; II, pt. 1, 1929, 77–85; II, pt. 4, 1930, 234–245; in, 1932, 16–38; JRS XVI, 1926, 221; XLII, 1952, 91–3, and below, p. 113.

26 VCH Shropshire I, 1908, 220–256; Soc of Antiq. Research Repts. I–III; Archaeologia LXXXVIII, 1940, 175–227; D. Atkinson, Report on Excavations at Wroxeter, 1923–27 (Birmingham Arch. Soc., 1942). For recent work, see below, p. 117f.

27 The references are to the field-numbers on O.S. maps 25-inch scale, Shropshire XLII 1 and 2, edition of 1929.

28 See below, p. 117 f., for a result of a training school excavation in 1952.

29 VCH Hampshire I, 1900, 271–284, 350–372; Archaeologia XCII, 1947, 121–167, quoting earlier references; JRS XXX, 1940, 177–9.

30 Archaeologia LXXX, 1930, 229–288; for an up-to-date plan, see Bull. Board of Celtic Studies XIV, 1951, plan facing p. 248.

31 Soc. of Antiq. Research Reports XIV, Camulodunum; JRS XXVII, 1937, 240; XL, 1950, 107, pl. viii, 2, for an air photograph.

32 JRS XLII, 1952, 94–5, and below, p. 116 f.

33 Yorks. Arch, Journ. XXXVII, 402–419, and 521–2, figs. 1–2 (1950); JRS XXX, 1940, 166; XLI, 1951, 125; below, p. 113.

34 For finds near here see Colt Hoare, Ancient Wiltshire, Roman Era, 1821, 71–2, and cf. also plan facing p. 91.

35 VCH Nottinghamshire II, 1910, 11–15.

36 VCH Nottinghamshire II, 1910, 35; JRS XXV, 1935, 210; XXIX, 1939, 206.

37 Artis, Durobrivae 1828, pl. 23; VCH Huntingdonshire I, 1926, 228; Inventory of Hunts. (R. Comm. Hist. Mons.), 1926, 52–4.

38 VCH Northamptonshire I, 1902, 178–184.

39 JRS XXXIX, 1949, 105–6; XL, 1950, 106–7.

40 VCH Oxfordshire I, 1939, 269, 281–8.

41 The Z-shaped bend shown in the plan of the town reproduced in VCH Oxfordshire 1, fig. 19, p. 282, near the south rampart is formed of ploughridges and not by the Roman road.

42 JRS XXXIX, 1949, 102.

43 Jack, ‘The Romano-British town of Magna,’ Woolhope Field Club Trans., 1916; JRS XV, 1925, 229.

44 VCH Somerset I, 1906, 334–344; see below, p. 123.

45 Richmond, Huddersfield in Roman times, 1925, 89–94.

46 For finds of Roman objects here, see Proc. Hants. Field Club XVI, part I, 1944, 38–9.

47 JRS XI, 1950, 102, and pl. vi, 2, for an air photograph.

48 Records of Bucks XIII, 1939, 398 ff.; JRS XXIX, 1939, 210–11.

49 Trans. Birmingham Arch. Soc. LXIII, 1944, 1–32; JRS XXI, 1931, 225–6; XXVII, 1937, 235. The dimensions given above are for the area within the ditches.

50 JRS XL, 1950, 101–2.

51 Artis, Durobrivae, 1828, pls. 16, 17, and 20.

52 For villas here, see Corder, and Kirk, , A Roman Villa at Langton (Roman Malton and District Repts. IV), 1932 Google Scholar. The enclosure illustrated on pl. XV, 1 lies at SE 825700.

53 For a recent study see Oxoniensia XV, 1952, 1–28, with air photographs, pls. i–iv.

54 Proc. Prehist. Soc. VI, 1940, 30–111.

55 Above, p. 94.

56 The enclosures illustrated in pl. XVI, I, lie at SE 558057.

57 JRS XL, 1950, 98, pl. vi, 1, for an air photograph.

58 Ant. Journ. XVI, 1936, 444–460.

59 Proc. Suffolk Inst. Arch. XXIV, 1949, 100–120; Arch. Journ. CVI, 1949 (1951), 66–9, fig. 2.

60 Roach-Smith, The antiquities of Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne, 1850, 233–268, and Report on Excavations at Lymne (1852); JRS XXII, 1932, 69–70; XXXIV, 1944, 85; VCH Kent II, 1932, 55–9.

61 JRS XL, 1950, 104. Mr. R. R. Clarke kindly drew my attention to this site.

62 JRS XL, 1950, 107.

63 JRS XXII, 1932, 71–2, showing the variation from the Yorkshire sites.

64 I am much indebted to Mr.C. W. Phillips for originally drawing my attention to this site.