More information : NY 74061677 Roman Marching Camp (R) (site of) (NAT) (1)
A small Roman temporary camp, approximately 180 ft by 100 ft, was discovered alongside the Roman road at Sandford. (2-3)
No certain surface traces. (4)
Prominently situated on top of an east/west ridge the area is now an arable field and all that can be seen are the remains of a low field bank running northeast/southwest bisecting the site. There are no traces of the camp itself.
Site only - no remains. (5)
No entrances are visible on Cambridge University air photographs and the site lies on a substantial slope despite the immediate proximity of level ground. Age and nature quite uncertain. Prof. St Joseph agrees verbally. (6)
This camp has been re-assessed in connection with RCHME's survey and publication of Roman Camps in England. The following descriptive account is taken from the published text.
The almost complete perimeter of a small camp was recorded from the air in 1949 (St Joseph 1951, 54 (see auth 2); CUCAP DO 85-6 (7a)), less than 1.5 km NW of Warcop. Situated at about 155 m above OD, on the main route from York (Eburacum) to Carlisle (Luguvalium) across the Stainmore Pass, it lies about 5.5 km NW of the fort at Brough (Verteris).
The camp was constructed on the gentle SW-facing slope of a spur which descends gradually to the SE; its NE defences follow the fairly broad summit of the ridge. There are good views in most directions, particularly to the W across the Eden valley; to the NW, however, the ridge continues to rise, obscuring this line of sight. The camp, measuring approximately 60 m to 50 m, is more or less rectangular, with each corner rounded in a very broad arc. The unusually large radius of the corners of this camp bears comparison with that of the small camp at Brougham (see NY 52 NW 7), which is farther to the W along the same road. Enclosing an area of about 0.3 ha, the NE, NW and SE ditches are each interrupted by a relatively wide central gate. No traverses can be distinguished but the ground, which is crossed by field drains, has long been under cultivation, and the cropmarks are not well defined.
The probable course of the Roman road across the Stainmore Pass can be traced as a cropmark less than 20 m S of the camp. To the W it appears as a terrace on the N verge of the modern road, while in the field immediately SE of the camp, a ploughed-down terrace and a hump in the E field boundary apparently mark its position. Full information is included in the NMR Archive. (7)
Additional reference. (8)
Scheduled, National Number 32852. (9)
The site was re-assessed as part of the EH Warcop Army Training Estate NMP project, and reinterpreted as a late Neolithic mortuary enclosure. This interpretation is based on a re-evaluation of a number of factors - the form of the enclosure, its siting, the record of a polished Neolithic axehead from the site ( NY 71 NW 34), and the proximity of funerary monuments of similar date (NY 71 NW 2) .(10) |