More information : TA 097113. Kirmington. The site of a large and
extensive Iron Age and Roman settlement. Irregular roads and
trackways, often flanked by ditches, are linked to a series of
enclosures among which can be seen the outlines of rectangular
buildings of 'strip' type, possibly of timber, perhaps of stone
with robber trenches marking the lines of the walls. The most
prominent feature of the site is the double-ditched enclosure
which lies in the centre and bears little relationship to the
roads. This is so similar to the plan of a Roman fort that it
must be of Roman date and defensive. Whether it is a fort of the
Flavian or Neronian period, or a later defensive earthwork,
cannot as yet be determined. Roman coin hoard found in this area
in 1960 (TA 01 SE 7). (Not visible on RAF air photographs 1947).(1)
Air-photographs have gradually enabled the outlines to be drawn
of a complex pattern of cropmarks (see illustration), the most
prominent of which show the NW angle of the double ditches of a
large four-sided enclosure. The E. and S. sides can only be
traced with difficulty, and the SE corner lies under the
perimeter track of the wartime air-field; but enough can be seen
to indicate that the area within the ditches covered c. 8 1/2
acres (3.5ha). The double-ditches, which are sufficiently
large and regular to be described as defences, occupy part of
an area covered by the irregularly planned roads and enclosures
of a settlement. Some of these roads apparently cross the
defences in various places. Many small enclosures are visible
and the drawing greatly understates the complications of these
enclosure ditches, which were probably recut many times. The
interpretation of the plan must be a matter for conjecture, as
study of the photographs does not make it clear whether the
defences are earlier or later than the other cropmarks.
The two carefully laid out, parallel and widely-spaced ditches,
the rounded angles, the proportions and area (about 626ft square,
some 9 acres), so far as these may be judged, raise the question
whether this enclosure may be identified as a fort?
The area covered by the cropmarks has produced many stray finds
of every period from the Neolithic to the Post-Medieval. This
suggests that the cropmarks of this multi-period site may
include more than the Iron Age and Romano-British settlement so
far suggested. (2)
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