More information : NZ 2758 5131. CONCANGIUM (R) ROMAN FORT (R) (site of) (NAT). (1)
CONCANGIUM - Chester-le-Sreet (2)
Chester-le-Street, a Roman cavalry station. Sufficient Roman material
has been found to prove occupation in Flavian times. Casual finds
over an area of 25 acres suggest an associated vicus here in the
latter part of the Roman period. (3)
The size of the fort appears to be about 540ft N-S by 500ft E-W.
There are indications of two structural periods, one involving
changes at the start of the 3rd century. The plateau on which it is
sited had been much flattened, material being spread from the highest
point to the N and W. (4)
Large scale excavations being envisaged in Chester-le-Street within
the next year or two, a final report will not be made at present.
Plan. (5)
No visible remains on the ground and no archaeological activity in
progress.
Name "CONCANGIS" accepted for 4th edition Romano-British Map. (6)
The major change from older plans is the addition of the
(approximate) position of the East Gate and the west side of the
fort.
Finds include large quantities of pottery, coins, quern-stones and
various metal objects. The pottery suggests a foundation date for the
fort of around 160 AD, though a few pieces of late 1st century
pottery and the bath-house (of a type in use only before 160 AD)
suggest there was an earlier fort apparently on a different site. (7)
Summary and plan of 1978 excavations of the North tower of the West
gate, part of the West wall (backed by an earth and clay rampart),
intervallum road, buildings of the Commanders house and private baths
and possible workshop. (8)
Two groups of plough-marks were discovered in the natural clay
beneath a substantial stone building E of the intervallum road and N
of the via principalis during excavations in 1978. (9-10)
Concangis - The Roman fort at Chester-le-Street. (11)
(Name centred NZ 2761 5122) Roman coins found AD 1909 (NAT). (12)
Several Roman coins, one of the Vespasian (AD 69-79) and a "red
earthen bottle of a Roman shape, about 6 ins high, with the handle
and base of a cream coloured jar" found c 1909 on the site of the
deanery during excavation for the Board schools. Samian pottery has
also been found and the potter's stamp on one piece points to a
Flavian origin for the fort. (13-13a)
NZ 276 513 (1049). Two portions from the right-hand end of a
dedication slab, 14 x 24 ins, found in 1879 near Chester-le-Street
church where it now is. Drawn by R G C 1926.
...] eq (uitum) | [alae ...Antoni ] nianae |...t[errito| [rium
...aquam] induxit | [balneum...a s]olo in| [struxit | [sub
cura...]diani leg(ati) | Aug(usti) pr(o) pr(aetore) Sabin(o) II
at An]ullin(o) co(n)s(ulibus)
`...of the troopers of the cavalry regiment Antoniniana...domain land
...brought in a water supply and erected a bath-building from ground
level under the charge of..., emperor's propraetorian legate, in the
consulship of Sabinus for the second time and of Anullinus'.
In the restoration adopted here it is assumed that a complemetary
slab carried the full names and titles of the emperor Caracalla
expressed in the nominative as subject to induxit and instruxit. For
a slab carrying only half the text see RIB 1279 (High Rochester).
(14)
The site was surveyed by RCHME during a project on scheduled
monuments in County Durham.
The Roman fort of CONCANGIS is situated in the town centre of Chester
-le-Street. Nothing survives of the defences or those structures
excavated up to and including 1978 as described by previous
authorities. A full scale exacvation was undertaken in 1990-1 at
NZ 2755 5138 in advance of a northward extension of the Parish
Centre. The defences of an early turf and timber fort comprising a
rampart and ditch facing west were found, which were overlaid by the
stone-built officers' quarters of a barrack block (15a). The great
majority of the excavation has been backfilled recently, but it is
proposed that the north wall of the officers' quarters, still
exposed, will be consolidated and left open for public inspection.
(15)
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