| Summary : The site of a Roman temporary camp surviving as an earthwork. There are two camps at Markham Cottage: the larger and earlier camp 1 contains the smaller camp 2 within its margin. The course of the Vallum lies 110 m to the N and the fort at Great Chesters (Aesica) is only 520 m to the NNW. Camp 1 is situated astride a low E to W ridge between the gorge of the Haltwhistle Burn to the S and E and, on the N, the shallow valley of the stream that flows E from Peat Steel to cross the NW corner of the camp. The camp is the largest in the vicinity but it is in poor condition: severely eroded by former seasonal watercourses, especially on the W, it has also suffered from agriculture which has reduced stretches of the rampart and ditch on the E side to little more than prominent elements in a system of ridge-and-furrow. Almost exactly rectangular on plan, the camp measures 460 m from N to S by 365 m transversely and encloses 16.8 ha (41.5 acres) within an earthen rampart and an external ditch. The defences are best preserved towards the N end of the E side where the bank stands 0.3 m high internally and the ditch is 0.3 m deep. Due to erosion and agricultural destruction the exact chronological relationship between camp 1 and the Stanegate cannot be demonstrated by fieldwork alone. However, their relative positions suggest that this large camp was constructed before the line of the road was established in the late 1st century AD. The camp is not likely to have continued in use thereafter. The presence of the cemetery, probably in use from the 2nd to the 4th century (cf Charlton and Mitcheson 1984, 19), implies a long life for this road; the modern lane and track preserves the line of a branch leading N to Great Chesters fort, avoiding the steeper slopes to the W (Horsley 1732, 150, J Roman Stud 42 (1952), 89). Camp 2 is almost certainly later than camp 1 but the interval between them is unknown. |
More information : [NY 70856609] ROMAN CAMP [G.S.] (Site of) [T.I.] (1)
A probable Ro. camp, but with south side uncertain and two thirds of the eastern part of the north side now gone. Gates may exist at NY 70686599 and NY 71056606, though the ground hereabouts is broken. (2)
Surveyed at 1/2500. The fragmentary remains of a large temporary camp, consisting of a superficial ditch at the N.W. angle, and sections of a reduced and mutilated rampart and ditch on the east and west sides. Neither gateway can be positively identified.
See Stanegate, RR 85a (NY 7065) for part of the survey. (3)
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.
There are two camps at Markham Cottage: the larger and earlier camp 1 contains the smaller camp 2 within its margin. The course of the Vallum lies 110 m to the N and the fort at Great Chesters (Aesica) is only 520 m to the NNW. Camp 1 is situated astride a low E to W ridge between the gorge of the Haltwhistle Burn to the S and E and, on the N, the shallow valley of the stream that flows E from Peat Steel to cross the NW corner of the camp. The ridge shelves gently to the E, from 193 m above OD just S of Markham Cottage to about 179 m above OD in the NE and SE angles. On the crest of the ridge and immediately to the N of the Stanegate, which crosses the S part of the camp, the E end of one of the fort's cemeteries lies within the defences.
Four certain and a fifth probable barrow were surveyed (NY 76 NW 47), at least two dozen others, of which about ten survive, were spread over a total distance of 400 m as far W as NY 7040 6594 (Wallis 1769, 11 (4a); NAR NY 76 NW 35 and 42). The camp is the largest in the vicinity but it is in poor condition: severely eroded by former seasonal watercourses, especially on the W, it has also suffered from agriculture which has reduced stretches of the rampart and ditch on the E side to little more than prominent elements in a system of ridge-and-furrow. A modern field wall overlies a stretch of the N defences and the W rampart has been partly incorporated into a revetted hedge bank.
Almost exactly rectangular on plan, the camp measures 460 m from N to S by 365 m transversely and encloses 16.8 ha (41.5 acres) within an earthen rampart and an external ditch. The defences are best preserved towards the N end of the E side where the bank stands 0.3 m high internally and the ditch is 0.3 m deep. The only entrance that can now be identified is at the medial point of the s side where a slight causeway is visible across the heavily silted ditch, all that can now be seen of the defences in this area. A low amorphous bank, 0.1 m high, which lies outside the line of the ditch here, is more likely to have been a traverse than an external clavicula.
Due to erosion and agricultural destruction the exact chronological relationship between camp 1 and the Stanegate cannot be demonstrated by fieldwork alone. However, their relative positions suggest that this large camp was constructed before the line of the road was established in the late 1st century AD. The camp is not likely to have continued in use thereafter. The presence of the cemetery, probably in use from the 2nd to the 4th century (cf Charlton and Mitcheson 1984, 19 (4b)), implies a long life for this road; the modern lane and track preserves the line of a branch leading N to Great Chesters fort, avoiding the steeper slopes to the W (Horsley 1732, 150 (4c), J Roman Stud 42 (1952), 89 (4d)).
Camp 2 is almost certainly later than camp 1 but the interval between them is unknown. The NW corner of camp 1 was formerly occupied by Wall, or Walltown, Mill. An incomplete female statue and an inscribed statue base were found in 1801 (Skinner 1978, 41-2 (4e); RIB 1731 (4f)) when the miller was clearing one of the leats. Two tombstones (RIB 1742, 1747 (see auth 4f)), most probably a third (RIB 1746 (see auth 4f)) and 'an urn' (Horsley 1732, 230 (see auth 4c)), were also found here, although their precise provenances are unknown. Dressed masonry and 'many foundations' had been dug up before 1840 on this low ridge to the N of the stream 'a little to the West' of Walltown Mill (Hodgson 1840, 203 (4g)). None of these discoveries is likely to relate directly to camp 1, the NW corner of which thus seems to have lain very close to, or under, another of the cemetries of Great Chesters fort.
The ground immediately to the NNE of the reservoir was cleared and graded in about 1980 and all evidence of the Roman defences was removed in this area. A small circular earthwork, 7.6 m in diameter overall, lies in the extreme NW corner of the camp. It consists of a low mound, no more than 0.1 m high, surrounded by the vestigial remains of a ditch only about 0.4 m wide. It overlies the position of the rampart and the comparatively recent ridge-and-furrow. Further ridge-and-furrow which predates the inclosure of Haltwhistle Common (Inclosure Award 1849: NRO QRA 33) is evident in the E half of the camp. Almost all traces of it have been destroyed in the modern arable field close to the SE angle. Perhaps broadly contemporary with this cultivation, or even earlier, is a bank, with a ditch on its NW side, which extends from close to the Haltwhistle Burn, in the NE, crosses the E and S defences of both camps and ends on the lip of a gully to the S of camp 1. Where it rides over the E side of the larger camp this bank is 0.4 m high and the ditch is 0.4 m deep, but elsewhere it has been reduced in places to a vestigial single scarp. There is no change of course apparent beside the Military Road (B6318), constructed in the 1750s, which the boundary probably predates. Full information is included in the NMR Archive. (4)
Additional reference. (5)
Published reference. (6)
The camp was recorded from aerial photographs at a scale of 1:10000 as part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site Mapping Project. (7-9)
Located on the English Heritage map of Hadrian's Wall 2010. (10) |