Summary

Roman camp 995m south east of The Hall.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 21 May 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.

This monument includes a Roman camp situated on a rise just above the floodplain in the valley of the River Teme which also strategically overlooks the valley of the River Clun to the north east. The Roman camp survives as entirely buried structures, layers and deposits visible on aerial photographs as crop and soil marks. The playing card shape camp measures approximately 534m long by 435m wide and covers an area of about 23ha. Visible as a break in the ditch with a causeway the southern entrance is particularly clear on the photographs. Within the camp to the north and in the south west corner are a series of small circular features which have been identified as possible hut circles or Bronze Age barrows which pre-dated the camp. It is known locally as ‘Brampton Bryan Camp’. This camp is the largest and westernmost of a group of similar Roman features around Leintwardine which together with other archaeological remains in the vicinity are the subject of separate schedulings. The camp is believed to have been built in 47-48 AD by Ostorius Scapula during a campaign to the west and re-used later in the century when further campaigns by Gallus (52- 57 AD), Veranius (57-58 AD), Paulinus (59-61 AD) and Frontimus (74-75 AD) became necessary.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Roman camps are rectangular or sub-rectangular enclosures which were constructed and used by Roman soldiers either when out on campaign or as practice camps; although most campaign camps were only temporary overnight bases and few were used for longer periods. They were bounded by a single earthen rampart and outer ditch and in plan are always straight-sided with rounded corners. Normally they have between one and four entrances, although as many as eleven have been recorded. Such entrances were usually centrally placed in the sides of the camp and were often protected by additional defensive outworks. Roman camps are found throughout much of England, although most known examples lie in the midlands and north. Around 140 examples have been identified and, as one of the various types of defensive enclosure built by the Roman Army, particularly in hostile upland and frontier areas, they provide an important insight into Roman military strategy and organisation. Despite cultivation the Roman camp 995m south east of The Hall survives comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, development, periods of use, longevity, strategic, political and military significance, domestic arrangements and overall landscape context.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
PastScape106860, 1400360 and 1400588

Source: Historic England