Details

The monument includes the late first/early second century AD Roman fort at
Brampton Old Church, and the upstanding and buried remains of the medieval
Church of St Martin which is located within the northern half of the Roman
fort. The fort is part of the Stanegate system, the first Roman defensive
system running across the Tyne-Solway route. It is located on a spur of ground
which falls steeply to the River Irthing on the north and west sides. The fort
is visible as a low rectangular platform measuring approximately 125m
north-south by 118m east-west and would have held a military unit of 500 men.
Limited excavation, largely within the southern half of the fort, by Simpson
and Richmond in 1935 found that it had been defended by an outer ditch
measuring 4.3m wide by 1.5m deep behind which lies a berm 4.3m wide which
separated the ditch from a turf and clay rampart 4.8m wide laid upon a
foundation of river cobbles and sandstone. A gateway was found at the mid-
point of the south side and limited excavation of the fort's interior found
well preserved stone foundations of two granary buildings, the headquarters
building, a barrack block, and a building interpreted as either part of the
commanding officer's house or a workshop. Roman pottery found during the
excavation was dated to the late first/early second century AD. Carefully
sealed post holes indicate that the fort was deliberately dismantled,
presumably at the time Hadrian's Wall and its associated forts became
operational.
Local tradition states that a church dedicated to St Martin, teacher of the
late fourth century/early fifth century AD Scottish saint, Ninian, used the
abandoned Roman fort as a shelter. The earliest documentary evidence for the
church dates to 1169 when it is mentioned as a gift at the dedication of
Lanercost Priory. It was partly constructed of reused stone from Hadrian's
Wall. A fortified tower was added to the west end of the church during the
14th century as defence during the Border Wars and this tower is depicted in a
sketch made during a survey of Hawkhirst in 1753. After the Dissolution of the
Monasteries the church was granted initially to the Dacre family in 1536 and
then the Howard family after 1569. The construction of a new chapel in
Brampton town centre led to the closure and part demolition of St Martin's old
church in 1789. The tower and nave were demolished leaving only the chancel
which was modified and continued in use as the church. The old oval
churchyard, whose eastern boundary still remains as the present churchyard
boundary, also continued in use and this was extended in 1861 and 1889. During
these extensions a number of discoveries were made including Roman foundations
and amphorae. In 1861 the chancel was extended at its eastern end and a porch
added at its western end. During the 1960s the churchyard was closed and in
1978 the church was declared redundant. In the early 1980s consolidation work
was undertaken on the church. Prior to this work a survey of the graveyard
gave an idea of the size of the medieval church prior to demolition; alignment
of pre-1788 gravestones suggest that the church did not extend more than 16m
to the west and no further south than the present chancel. The upstanding
remains of the church are Listed Grade II*.
All paths, fences, walls, gravestones, the gate to the churchyard, and a shed
to the north of the church are excluded from the scheduling, although the
ground beneath all these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Hadrian's Wall marks one of the frontiers of the Roman Empire. The
international importance of the surviving remains has been recognised through
designation as a World Heritage Site.
The military importance of the Tyne-Solway route across the Pennines was
recognised by the Romans during their early campaigns through northern England
and into Scotland in the second half of the first century AD. At this time a
military road, the Stanegate, was constructed along with a series of forts.
Subsequently the Romans largely withdrew from Scotland and there is evidence
that the Tyne-Solway route was being recognised as a frontier by the start of
the second century AD. This position was consolidated in the early second
century by the construction of a substantial frontier work, Hadrian's Wall,
under the orders of the Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian's successor, Antoninus Pius,
subsequently attempted to establish the boundary further north, between the
Clyde and the Firth of Forth, but by c.AD 160 growing unrest amongst the
native populations of northern Britain and pressures elsewhere in the Empire
caused a retraction back to the Hadrianic line. Hadrian's Wall was then the
frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain until c.AD 400 when the Roman armies
withdrew from Britain.
Stretching over 70 miles from coast to coast, Hadrian's Wall was a continuous
barrier built of stone in the east and, initially, of turf in the west. The
stone wall was originally designed to be ten Roman feet wide and sections of
this width are termed broad wall. A change of plan shortly after construction
began led to a reduction in the width of the Wall to eight Roman feet, such
sections being termed narrow wall. Today, stretches of both wall types
survive, including some sections of narrow wall built on broad wall
foundations. For most of its length a substantial ditch on the northern side
provided additional defence. Where the Wall crossed rivers, bridges were
constructed to carry it across. Construction of the Wall was organised and
executed by legionary soldiers.
From the beginning the barrier was planned to comprise more than just a
curtain wall. At regularly spaced intervals of about a mile along its length
lay small walled fortlets known as milecastles. These were attached to the
southern side of the Wall and most had a gateway through the Wall to the
north. Hence they controlled crossing points through the Wall as well as
affording space for a small stable garrison. Between the milecastles were two
equally spaced towers known as turrets. Together the milecastles and turrets
provided bases from which the curtain wall could be watched and patrolled.
Both the turrets and milecastles are thought to have been higher than the Wall
itself to provide suitable observation points. It is often assumed that a
platform existed on the Wall so that troops could actually patrol along the
wall top; it is however far from certain that this was the case.
At the western end of the Wall a system of towers, small fortlets and palisade
fences extended the frontier system another 30 miles or so down the Cumbrian
coast and helped control shipping moving across the estuary of the Solway
Firth.
As originally planned, and apart from whatever space there was in the
milecastles, provision for the accommodation of garrison troops manning the
Wall was left with the line of forts which already lay along the Stanegate. At
some point a fundamental change of plan took place and forts were constructed
along the line of the Wall itself. There are now known to have been 16 forts
either attached to the Wall or in close association with it. Some overlay
earlier features such as turrets or milecastles. At this stage another linear
element, the vallum, was also added to the defensive system to the south of
the Wall. This was a broad flat-bottomed ditch flanked by a pair of linear
banks. It shadows the course of the Wall for almost all its length, sometimes
lying very close to it but sometimes up to a kilometre away from it. The
vallum's main function was to act as a barrier to restrict access to the Wall
from the south. It also had a function in linking the forts along the Wall
with a method of lateral communication. When the forts were placed along the
wall line no provision was made for a road to link them. This situation was
clearly found impracticable and a metalled track was therefore provided in
places along the vallum between the north mound and the ditch.
Later, after the withdrawal back to the Hadrianic line from the Antonine Wall,
various refurbishments were made throughout the frontier line. At this stage a
new linear feature was added: the `Military Way'. This was a road linking
all elements of the Wall defence, running from fort to fort within the area
bounded by the Wall and the vallum.
Throughout its long history the Wall was not always well maintained. It was
often neglected and sometimes overrun, but it remained in use until the late
fourth century when a weak and divided Roman Empire finally withdrew its
armies from the Wall and Britain.
It now survives in various states of preservation. In places, especially in
the central section, the Stone Wall still remains several courses high and the
attached forts, turrets and milecastles are also clearly indentifiable.
Earthwork features such as the ditch, vallum and Military Way also survive
well in places. Elsewhere the Stone Wall has been virtually robbed out and
only its foundations survive beneath the present ground surface. Similarly,
stretches of the earthwork remains, including sections of the Turf Wall, have
been levelled or infilled and now only survive as buried features. Although
some sections of the frontier system no longer survive visibly, sufficient
evidence does exist for its position to be fairly accurately identified
throughout most of its length.
The Stanegate military road linked Corbridge and Carlisle, both of which were
also situated on important north-south routeways. It also extended west of
Carlisle towards the Cumbrian coast. The construction of a series of forts
along the road line allowed many troops to be stationed in this crucial
frontier zone and ensured that the area could be closely patrolled. A series
of smaller watch towers were also built to help frontier control. The
Stanegate frontier was consolidated during the late first and early second
century AD and helped crystallise Roman tactics and military expectations in
the area. The function of the Stanegate road and its forts was changed by the
building of Hadrian's Wall. Initially at least, the Stanegate's support
function was enhanced, but as the new frontier line became more fully
established its strategic importance declined.

A parish church is a building, usually of roughly rectangular outline and
containing a range of furnishings and fittings appropriate to its use for
Christian worship by a secular community, whose members gather in it on
Sundays and on the occasion of religious festivals. Children are initiated
into the Christian religion at the church's font and the dead are buried in
its churchyard. Parish churches were designed for congregational worship and
are generally divided into two main parts: the nave, which provides
accommodation for the laity, and the chancel, which is the main domain of the
priest and contains the principal altar. Either or both parts are provided
with aisles, giving additional accommodation or spaces for additional altars.
Most parish churches also possess towers, generally at the west end, but
central towers at the crossing of nave and chancel are not uncommon and some
churches have a free-standing or irregularly sited tower. Many parish churches
also possess transepts at the crossing of chancel and nave, and south or
north porches are also common. The main period of parish church foundation
were in the 10th to 11th and 19th centuries. Most medieval churches were
rebuilt and modified on a number of occasions and hence the visible fabric of
a church will be of several different dates, with in some cases little fabric
of the first church being still easily visible.
Parish churches are found throughout England. Their distribution reflects the
density of population at the time they were founded. In regions of dispersed
settlement parishes were often large and churches less numerous. The densest
clusters of parish churches were found in thriving medieval towns. A survey of
1625 reported the existence of nearly 9000 parish churches in England. New
churches built in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries increased numbers to
around 18,000 of which 17,000 remain in ecclesiastical use. Parish churches
have always been major features of the landscape and a major focus of life for
their parishioners. They provide important insights into medieval and later
population levels or economic cycles, religious acitvity, artistic endeavour
and technical achievement. A significant number of surviving examples are
identified to be nationally important.
Despite the use of the northern half of the fort as a churchyard, limited
excavation and chance finds in both the northern and southern half of the fort
indicate the survival of well preserved remains of the Roman fort's defences
and internal buildings, and further undisturbed evidence of the fort's layout
and occupation will exist. Additionally the area of the graveyard occupied by
the demolished part of the medieval Church of St Martin has remained unused
for later burials, thus it will contain undisturbed evidence of the church and
its 14th century fortified tower. Local tradition claims that the church is
one of the earliest sites in Cumbria to be used for Christian worship, and
evidence to support or refute this tradition will survive.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Selkirk, , Brampton in Olden Times, (1907), 118
Robinson, J, 'Trans Cumb and West Antiq and Arch Soc. New Ser.' in Notes on Brampton Old Church, , Vol. LXXXII, (1982), 73-89
Simpson, F G, Richmond, I A, 'Trans Cumb and West Antiq and Arch Soc. New Ser.' in The Roman Fort On The Stanegate And Other Remains at Old Church, , Vol. XXXVI, (1936), 172-82
Whitehead, , 'Trans Cumb & West Antiq & Arch Soc. Old Ser.' in , , Vol. IV, (), 548
Other
DOE, List of Buildings of Historic & Architectural Interest,
SMR No. 4591, Cumbria SMR, St Martins Church, (1987)

Source: Historic England