Alchester Roman parade ground, access road and marching camp

Summary

Site of a Roman parade ground and part of a temporary marching camp 500m to the SE of the Roman settlement of Alchester.

Reasons for Designation

The Roman parade ground at Alchester Roman settlement, located at NGR SP 5785 1984 (centre), is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: the buried remains of the ditches and Roman access road survive well, and it is believed that some of the gravelled surface remains in situ;
* Rarity: this is a rare site-type, believed by some to be one of the earliest examples in the Roman Empire, and one of only a very small number known and designated in Britain;
* Potential: is good for the survival of important information on the date and use of this monument retained in the buried deposits;
* Documentation: good archaeological documentation for the site is provided by aerial photographs and the results of archaeological trial trenching;
* Group value: strong historical, functional and proximal group value with the scheduled settlement of Alchester;
* Historic importance: the likely association with Vespasian and chronological relationship with a temporary marching camp, which probably predates the fortress, enhances the historic importance of the monument.

History

THE ROMAN TOWN OF ALCHESTER

Much has been written about the Roman settlement at Alchester, its origins as a military base and civilian town. The summary below is intended to provide a context to the parade ground, access road and marching camp and is not an exhaustive account of our understanding of the settlement, for which please see the sources.

Located on low-lying gravels at an important junction of five Roman roads (including Akeman Street from Cirencester and a southward branch of Watling Street to Dorchester on Thames), the Roman town of Alchester was founded in the mid-1st century partially on the site of an earlier Claudian vexillation fortress. The buried remains of the fortress, covering an area of 10.5ha with a 4ha annexe, lie beneath and to the W of the Roman town. The fortress, revealed initially in aerial photographs, was confirmed by subsequent excavations between 1998 and 2003. Large enough to house at least half a legion, together with perhaps a couple of cavalry regiments, the fortress was defended by a triple-ditch system, the inner ditch having a ‘V’-shaped profile, the central with a flat-bottom to accommodate an upright line of stakes and the outer ditch with a near vertical outer face. In 2003, a section of the town’s W wall and gate were excavated during which the underlying timber gateposts of the fortress's W entrance were recorded. They gave a dendrochronology date of between October AD 44 and March AD 45, very shortly after the Claudian invasion of Britain in summer AD 43, suggesting that the army based here were heavily involved in the Roman invasion of Britain. The inscribed tombstone of Lucius Valerius Geminus, a veteran of the Second Augustan Legion, was retrieved in the excavation; it had been broken up and reused in the town’s later defences. Inscribed tombstones are very rare finds in Britain and reveal important information about the Roman army and those who served in it. The Second Augustan Legion was part of the Claudian invasion forces commanded by Vespasian at the time; a seasoned military commander, Vespasian became Emperor in AD 69. Professor Eberhard Sauer (2005, 101-133), the archaeologist leading the excavations, contends that Alchester may have been Vespasian’s headquarters whilst he was legate of the Second Augustan until AD 47. Other military artefacts retrieved during the excavation include pieces of armour and a bronze cavalry harness clip. Of equal significance are the waterlogged remains of organic materials, such as the wooden posts and stakes noted above and plant remains including the earliest British examples of millet, coriander, celery and Mediterranean stone pine-cones.

It is unclear how long the earliest fortress was in occupation, but if Alchester was the base of the Second Legion it was probably occupied until approximately AD 60 when it is known that they moved their headquarters to Exeter. The town probably developed quickly after its foundation, perhaps initially as a vicus, presumably housing retired soldiers, their families and the tradesmen serving this community. The town was bounded by a ditch and rampart, in places reusing the defences of the fortress, which survive as buried features. The town within the walls was traversed by two internal roads, the N-S route being the road to Dorchester on Thames. Timber houses and buildings fronted the gridded streets. Fortification and rebuilding during the Hadrianic period (2nd century) enclosed about 45 hectares and included: rebuilding timber buildings in stone; constructing a stone rampart and building internal corner towers to the rampart, partially revealed by excavation at the NE and SE corners. Numerous finds including pottery, glass, coins and small objects have been found over the years; military artefacts include metalwork from horse harnesses. Evidence from excavations and artefacts suggest occupation to the end of the 4th century; the town was abandoned following the end of Roman occupation in Britain.

The town’s structures were robbed from the post-Roman period onwards and most of the earthworks eroded by ploughing. Prior to the recent targetted excavations and analysis of aerial photography, evidence and understanding of the town was derived by limited excavation and recording by antiquarians from the C18. To the W are the buried remains of a bath house excavated in 1766. Excavations in the mid to late C19 found an internal walled porticus, and a cemetery at the SE corner of the town; human remains were excavated when the railway from Oxford to Bletchley was excavated in 1848 further to the SE. There is evidence for further extramural development to the E of the town.

The site of the town lies under a mixture of pasture with some arable. The W wall of the Roman town survives as a field boundary, and there may be other fragmentary survival of Roman structures in other landscape features, but most of the settlement’s archaeology survives as buried features observed as parchmarks or cropmarks.

THE PARADE GROUND, ACCESS ROAD AND MARCHING CAMP

Located approximately 500m to the ESE of the town's core, beyond the scheduled area of the Roman town, are the remains of a military parade ground, its access road and an earlier marching camp. In 1990 a Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England (RCHME) project examining aerial photographs of field systems S of the Roman town revealed a rectangular enclosure with a metalled interior, accessed by an apparent Roman road from the N. Subsequent site visits in 1991 showed soil marks on the location of the parade ground, and a higher density of stones, probably the interior metalling. Additional aerial photographs in 1994 (Historic England Archive reference 15134/53, 15484 and 15499) showed the feature more clearly and were followed by geophysical survey and trial trenching by the Oxford University Archaeology Society (OUAS) between 1996-1998; the results inform the description below. The southern ditch of the parade ground appears to have re-used the ditch of an earlier marching camp. Sauer, Crutchley and Erwin (1999) postulate that the camp may not have been finished. Henig, Booth and Allen (2000, 37) opine that the temporary camp predates the construction of the vexillation fortress with which the parade ground is associated. Some of the camp’s ditches are evident on aerial photographs and were also sampled during the evaluation. In addition to the buried deposits of the parade ground, road and camp, a cavalry pendant and strap fitting were found; the small number of finds retrieved date the parade ground to the Roman period. The land was ploughed and used for arable production until the late 1990s at least, but is now under pasture.

Identified parade grounds, known as campi, are few across the former Roman empire. They were essential elements of Roman military training, typically located away from the camp to allow horses, and men, to be sufficiently warmed up for military exercises by the time they reached the parade ground. Where necessary, the interior of the camp was levelled to provide a stable surface; a necessity on the low-lying land surrounding Alchester. The parade ground at the Roman fort on Hardknott Pass in Cumbria (National Heritage List for England 1009349) is scheduled as part of the fort complex. Two other scheduled Roman fort complexes - Tomen-Y-Mur (CADW ref ME078) and the settlement at Cefn-caer farm (CADW ME099), both in Gwynedd - are known to have associated parade grounds.

Historic England's Introduction to Heritage Assets (IHA) on Roman Forts and Fortresses (May 2011) explains that these were the permanent or semi-permanent bases of Roman troops. Vexillation fortresses, found mostly in the S of England, provided accommodation for a number of brigaded auxiliary units during the original conquest phase of Britain. Most forts and fortresses follow standardised rectangular plans and were surrounded by a least one V-shaped ditch, but vexillation fortresses are comparatively less well understood and could exhibit greater variety depending on the garrison and its purpose. Civilian settlements often developed on the sites of forts and fortresses in the South and military structures are sometimes found archaeologically as the earliest phases of Roman towns. The IHA notes that other structures are occasionally encountered including bath houses, as at Chesters fort on Hadrian’s Wall; and training structures such as a gyrus (for horse training) found at the Lunt in Coventry and a basilica exercitatoria, a building for exercising and training, found at Birdoswald on Hadrian’s Wall.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
The monument includes the buried archaeological deposits of a Roman parade ground, a Roman access road and part of a temporary camp as evident on aerial photographs. The monument lies on pasture over low-lying gravel to the ESE of the scheduled Roman settlement of Alchester (old county number OX18), located at SP 5785 1984 (centre).

DESCRIPTION
The monument includes the ditches of the Roman temporary camp’s S arm and its NE corner observed during the evaluation; the fragmentary W arm lies outside of the monument. The ditches are shallow but had a distinctive V-shaped profile, typical of Roman military construction. The NE corner is located some 301-7m N of the camp’s S arm.

The rectangular parade ground of approximately 1.9ha in size measures approximately 150m N-S by x 126m E-W and is enclosed by U-shaped ditches with rounded corners. The S ditch of the parade ground cuts into, and follows the line of, the S ditch of the camp. The parade ground is accessed via a straight road from the N, apparently metalled and ditched, which measures approximately 233m long x 13m wide and survives as a buried feature evident on aerial photographs, but not observed during the evaluation. The road terminates at the confluence of two water courses at the N boundary of the area assessed. No evidence of a gate or entrance between the S end of the road and the parade ground was found during the archaeological evaluation. The interior of the parade ground consists of a platform of laid gravel or metalling, the extent of survival is not clear.

A buffer of 2m is included around the Roman parade ground, access road and marching camp for the preservation and protection of the scheduled monument.

EXCLUSIONS
All modern fences, fence posts and gates are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath them is included.

Sources

Books and journals
Henig, Martin, Booth, Paul, Allen, Tim, Roman Oxfordshire, (2000), 37, 52-8
Sauer, E, Crutchley, S, Erwin, P, The Military Origins of the Roman Town of Alchester in Britannia, Vol. 30, (1999), 289-297
Sauer, E W, Inscriptions from Alchester: Vespasian's Base of the Second Augustan Legion? in Britannia, Vol. XXXVI, (2005), 101-133

Websites
Britannia article by Sauer, Crutchley and Erwin, accessed 25/06/14 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/526685
Victoria County History, accessed 17th January 2017 from www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol1/pp281-303
Britannia XXXVI, accessed 19th January 2017 from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/britannia/article/div-classtitleinscriptions-from-alchester-vespasianandaposs-base-of-the-second-augustan-legiondiv/40B05D749481D78BE302EAB4FF8787D6
References for scheduled monuments from CADW, accessed 25/2/17 from http://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/sam/FullReport?lang=en&id=2455

Other
Alchester Roman Town. C Stoertz. RCHME report November 1998.

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