More information : [Area SU 6400 6240] INTRENCHMENT and INTRENCHMENT (Track of) [O.E.]. (1)
The Outer Earthwork
The great outer earthwork of Silchester consists of a single bank and ditch enclosing about.230 acres. Its line is somewhat obliterated on the east but it is well-defined on the north-west and exists at its highest and best in Rampiers Copse to the
south and west.
A section cut by Mrs.M.Cotton in 1938-9 in Rye House Meadow showed that that the primary mound must have been revetted by a small dry-stone wall along the inner lip of the ditch. In places a slight counterscarp to the ditch exists. No evidence for its date was found here but it was seen to be made in one period and had had no major repair or alteration.
A further section to the south revealed a piece of possibly late Belgic imported ware in the spill from the bank and Claudian
occupation on its tail. This suggestive dating was confirmed at Rampiers Copse where a section (dug into the north slope only) revealed a possible temporary bivouac of the bank-builders sealed by the bank. This contained Claudian and Belgic sherds.
A further confirmatory point is that the tail-layers of the bank contained many pieces of well-baked Roman brick - a point which together with the other evidence precludes a pre-Claudian date for the earthwork. The earthwork was built in a native tradition and seemingly was built by a collection of native peoples under the direct stimulus of Roman leadership. A date soon after AD 61 - the Boudiccan revolt - seems most likely; definitely post AD 43 and most probably AD 61-65.(2)
The western entrance to the outer earthwork was at the field gate to the north end of Rampiers and was protected by a
crescent-shaped outwork. The original roadway passed round this outwork and ascended by a fairly steep slope over the embankment. This road was 10ft. wide, of gravel and clay, and was buried under the Roman road which led from the south-west gate and was 30 feet broad. The inner and outer earthwork were levelled down showing that no importance was attached to them. (3)
In 1911, the author, excavating in the Beeches - a copse southeast of the East Gate - found the line of the outer entrenchment. Hitherto no traces were visible on the east side and it had been thought to be within the town wall. The bank and ditch were excavated for 150 yards and an entrenched entrance-way found. The bank was inturned some 50ft. or so and a ditch, 6ft. deep and 15ft. wide, bounded the passage on either side. On the south side of the bank on either side of the entrance were traces of enclosures 'which may have served as a sort of stockaded tower'. In the rear of the entrance were two pits - one filled with a peaty deposit 'suggests thst they were soakaways for the ditches and roadway. This latter was about 6ft. wide without any trace of metalling and entered the entrenchment at an angle pointing north-west in the direction of the later east gate.
Roman potsherds were found in the filling of the ditch. (4)
The Outer Earthwork.
In Rampier Copse, to the southwest of the walled town, the ditch is 40ft. wide and 10ft. deep, with a small counterscarp bank in places, and the rampart is 30ft. broad and 20ft. high. The ditch is steep and V-shaped with only a small flat bottom.
As completed the earthwork possessed a flint revetment on its outer side, and traces of this have been found in every section
opened. In Rampier Copse there was also a clay and wattle revetment. Except on the south, the 4000yd. circuit was laid out in a series of straight lengths. On the northeast a bold sweep takes the line from its north entrance to a corner just beyond the Amphitheatre, where a southerly alignment begins and runs as far as the Beeches. It then turns southwest and west to its south entrance, clinging all the time to the most advantageous course across the brow of the eastern slopes. From Church Lane to Rampier Copse there is a pronounced re-entrant owing to marshy ground, avoided also by the Silchester - Winchester road. In Rampier Copse the direct line is resumed, but the earthwork again bends inwards a little farther on. Its course thence for some distance was obscure until 1956, when a trench opened for another purpose encountered the filled ditch on the west side of the top of a small wet valley running southeast, avoided by the Silchester - Old Sarum road. This is on another alignment, and it is now known that the earthwork bends inward at Rampier Copse to cross this valley at a suitably high level. In view of the other re-entrant on the south, this course is curious; but it permits a clear sweep up to Wall Lane, where a short length completes the circuit.
The earthwork is certainly of Roman date. In 1939 [Authty. 2] a post-Boudiccan date of A.D.61-5 was preferred to that of the
Claudio-Neronian period of 45-65. It was, however, noted that the evidence was insufficient to disprove a later date. The
'Belgic Defence' [4.1], however, has a great bearing on the date of the earthwork, which may not have been built until the
2nd century when the streets had been laid out. Firstly, the 'Belgic Defence' was not obliterated by 61, nor indeed until half a
century later, and could therefore have been refurbished, if necessary. Secondly the street-plan is obviously aligned upon
the two main streets coincident with the four 'Belgic' entrances. Now, had there been a street plan before the earthwork was constructed several anomalies would not have appeared - the angular extremity of the main street XIII - XXX beyond the
'Belgic' entrance on the east, the similar angular extension of XXIV - VIII on the south, and the curious state of affairs on the
west, where the Roman road leaves the Belgic entrance at an angle but street XIII - XXX carries straight on to a dead end
against the bank of the earthwork. Moreover, it seems reasonable to suppose that the 'Belgic' defence would have been
systematically obliterated upon the construction or planning of a larger defence, whereas this did not in fact occur until roughly
the time when the streets were laid out. (5)
Mrs. Cotton confirms her opinion of the date of the earthwork as expressed in 2. (6)
"...It is hard to see the 'Outer Earthwork'...as an element in Hadrianic 'correction', and the reasons for abandoning Mrs.
Cotton's earlier view are not altogether clear; the line of the road from Winchester strongly suggests that the earthwork
was there before it". (7)
A detailed description of this earthwork is as follows:-
The earthwork is approached by five Roman roads. Where they impinge upon the line of the earthwork a conjectural entrance
has been shown. The entrance, described by Col. Karslake - Authy.4, is doubtfully contemporary with the earthwork. (8-12)
Published 1/2500 survey revised. Description of 4.2.57 still correct. (13)
The existence of a continuous outer earthwork is unsupported; it was probably limited to the standing earthworks to the north-west (Sandy's Lands) and south-west (Rampier Copse) which do not themselves form a homogeneous structure. Neither can be dated with any certainty but probably belong to the later first century BC. (14-15)
Boon hypothesises the incorporation of an earlier enclosure - the 'Salient Dyke' - as a continuation of the outer earthwork at Rampier Copse, but this has yet to be proven. (16-17)
The Outer Earthwork was originally believed to be a continuous circuit surrounding Calleva, enclosing an area of 86 hectares, and dated from the later first century. Boon furthered this assumption by projecting the layout of the street-grid beyond the third century walls. The construction of the second century earthern rampart was therefore assumed to reduce the urban area by 50%. Excavations on the projected course of the Outer Earthwork took place in 1978 and located no evidence for the earthwork to be continuous. The upstanding earthworks to the northwest (Sandys Lands) and southwest (Rampier Copse) appear to be pre-Roman, probably dating to the later first century BC. Fulford argues these earthworks may have been part of an unfinished design, possibly cutting off the gravel spur on which the town is situated from the gravel terrace to the west. Similar in design to the more complex linear systems at Camulodunum. (18)
The Outer Earthwork was recorded from aerial photographs and lidar imagery during the Silchester Iron Age Environs project at Rampiers Copse and Sandys Lands to the south-west and north-west of Calleva and to the north-east alongside Clad Gully and Collin's Copse. A section of bank which extends from Rampiers Copse north to the inner earthwork around Calleva was identified on lidar imagery. It may be part of the enclosure around a cemetery. It was previously recorded as part of the Aggregate Landscape of Hampshire NMP project. (20-22) |