More information : 'A' NZ 1350 8846. Square earthwork with roundish corners and part of surrounding ditch visible. Roman? 'B' NZ 1338 8845. Rectangular earthwork. (1) Remains of two rectangular earthworks situated at 300 ft above sea level, upon a gentle north slope. They are both overgrown with young birch trees, bracken and brambles. 'A' Centred NZ 1348 8845. The north side of the earthwork lies along the top of steep slopes which fall away to the River Font. The other three sides consist of triple ramparts with two medial ditches, the inner rampart being carried round the north side. The interior measures approx 50.0m E-W., by 60.0m N-S. There are entrances midway in the east and west sides. 'B' Centred NZ 1336 8843. Consists of a single rampart with outer ditch. The internal area is approx 45.0m. E-W by 65.0m N-S. The entrances could not be located. (2) Surveyed at 1/2500. (3) A small Roman fort at Longshaws must be one of the best preserved of its type in the north of England. The defences comprise a rampart some 40ft wide and 3 1/2 - 5 1/2 ft high. and two widely-spaced ditches with a bank between them. Area within the inner ditch is about 250ft square. (1.4 acres), while that enclosed by the rampart if 150ft square (0.6 acres). There is a gate in the centre of the west side with a clearly marked causeway leading from it, but it is not clear whether a gap in the east rampart marks a corresponding gate. The ditches are less well preserved, and are overgrown. The fort stands at a point where the river (Font) is eroding its south bank, but the course cannot have changed much since Roman times as the outer ditch of the fort bends away as if to run to the river scarp. Barely 100 ft SW of the fort, in an area of tangled thickets is a further slight earthwork consisting of a rampart 10-12ft wide, and a ditch. The whole is some 200ft N-S by 185 ft at a rough estimate. Angles are rounded in curves of small radius, and both rampart and ditch are interrupted for a gate in the centre of the north side. What little of the earthwork is visible together with the evidence of APs scarcely leaves doubt that remains of a Roman camp are in question. (4) Both works are clearly of Roman origin, and the plan of the larger one is consistent with that of a fortlet except for the question of 'gates'. Gaps noted by St Joseph are in fact no more than a lowering of the track, and the former appears originally to have been uninterrupted. Survey of 4 11 64 unchanged. (5) Frere writes that this is now thought to be a native site and it should be deleted from the map of Roman Britain. (6) The validity of this site as a fortlet was undermined by the excavations at the similar sites of Apperley Dene (NZ 05 NE 5) and at Hartburn, Jobey threw specific doubt on the identification of Longshaws as a Roman military site. (7) The sites are the remains of 2 Roman fortlets. (8)
At NZ 1350 8847, on the edge of a river cliff above the River Font, is a Roman fortlet, one of two (see also NZ 18 NW ) surveyed at 1:1000 scale by RCHME Newcastle in 1984 as a part of the Longshaws Survey.
The fortlet is strongly defended by two ramparts and two ditches, with a substantial counterscarp bank surviving in places beyond the outer ditch. The area enclosed by the inner rampart, 1.8m high and 10-12m wide, measures 47m N-S by 45m E-W; the inner ditch is 0.6m deep. The outer defence comprises a rampart, up to 0.9m high, a ditch, 1.2m deep, and an intermittent outer counterscarp bank up to 0.7m high; this outer line incorporates the river cliff to the NE of the fortlet. There are opposing entrances medial to the E and W sides. (9) |