An Early Roman Fort at Thirkleby, North Yorkshire

Martin Millett,Richard Brickstock

doi:10.1017/s0068113x20000021

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the discovery through aerial photography of a Roman fort at Thirkleby, near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. It appears to have two structural phases, and surface finds indicate that it dates from the Flavian period. The significance of its location on the intersection of routes north–south along the edge of the Vale of York and east–west connecting Malton and Aldborough is discussed in the context of Roman annexation of the North.

Highlights

This paper reports the discovery through aerial photography of a Roman fort at Thirkleby, near Thirsk in North Yorkshire
The unusually dry conditions in northern England in the summer of 2018 produced a substantial crop of new sites discovered through aerial photography
The Google Earth satellite image coverage for parts of Yorkshire has been updated with a set of images taken on 1 July 2018, during the drought

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The unusually dry conditions in northern England in the summer of 2018 produced a substantial crop of new sites discovered through aerial photography. 1) shows a typical rectangular playing-card shaped outline of a fort with a main ditch, and fainter traces of the outer ditch on the southern and western sides, orientated at 13 degrees east of north. Further east the approximate line of these ditches is continued towards the east gate by a single line of features: it is not clear whether these represent a ditch cut by plough furrows or a line of large post-pits At first inspection these all appear to represent internal features within the fort, but their lack of alignment with the gate axes and the apparent continuation of the east–west ditch curving northwards across the west gate and continuing north instead suggest the presence of a second phase with a reduced-sized fort measuring c. Such a subsequent fort might suggest that it had a longer occupation than some others in the region like Roecliffe and Hayton, but similar to the early phases at Malton. We may note that the aerial photos do not reveal the Roman road, but do show slight evidence of ancient field systems and enclosures in the area to the west and south-west of the fort

Roecliffe

DISCUSSION