Housesteads Roman Fort from the air. Copyright Reserved: Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle upon Tyne.


Roman granaries at Housesteads. Photo by Harry Rowland.

[NY 7899 6880] VERCOVICIUM ROMAN FORT [R] (1)

Ministry of Works pamphlet. (2)

The perimeter wall of the fort is well preserved with excavated internal remains of buildings visible. Turf-covered foundations of vicus buildings are visible with some excavated remains. Re-surveyed at 1/2500. (3)

Plan showing typical vicus buildings at Housesteads. [Annexed to NY 76 NE 14.1]

Additional bibliography. (4)

Stone by stone survey of the walls of Housesteads fort was undertaken by A Whitworth for English Heritage. (5)

Metalworking debris from excavations in the north east corner of the fort were examined by AML in 1996. Rare evidence for the use of coal in Romano-British ironworking was found from some slag. (6)

Scheduled. (7)

An archaeological survey of land to the west and south of the Roman fort was carried out in 2003 to supplement the fort management plan and identify whether footpaths leading to the fort were damaging archaeological deposits. Some 7ha were examined using both magnetometry and resistivity techniques.
The resistivity survey showed the road leading west, away from the fort, to join the Military Way, together with ditches to each side. There is also evidence of possible stone buildings flanking the road.
The group of buildings lying south of the fort are bound by ditches to the east and west and the vallum to the south and represent the known vicus. The road running into the south gate of the fort is clearly visible on the survey as well as many large buildings. These may represent specific military buildings and one very large building has a central space about 8m by 10m. Another building is tentatively identified as a bath house and possible latrine block. Several drains were identified from the survey. The definition of the vicus by boundary ditches and the vallum, together with a clear area of field systems to the west of the fort, suggests that the areas around a fort were precisely defined by the army at a very early date, both in extent and use. (8)

Conservation Plan published in March 2002 with detailed descriptions of the fort and its environs. This includes a description of the fort and its individual components as well as historical background, condition, management issues, and significance. (9)

It is thought that the sites possessed an aqueduct from the north and northeast. The aqueduct, for which there is no dating evidence, is thought to have been a wooden pipeline whose existence is established by the excavations of R C Bosanquet recovering an iron pipe collar. A fountain has been postulated here previously in connection with the pipeline. (10)

The Commander's House excavated by both John Clayton, in the earlier 19th century, and Dorothy Charlesworth, in the later 20th century. A sequence of the building of the house was established, and internal room features were identified, in the construction of the northern and western ranges first before the eastern and southern ones. The building is centred around a rectangular courtyard and has necessitated the construction of a levelled area in the hillslope area. Extensive disturbance to the internal stratigraphy of the rooms was noted as cuased by the earlier excavators, though an extensive series of finds was made. (11)

Water supply at Housesteads could have been by rainwater harvesting from the roof structures within the fort. Storage would have been by means of stone-lined tanks and excess surface drainage and overflow from the tanks could have been used for flushing the latrines. Detailed analysis and discussion. (12)

Excavations for a series of new interpretation boards across the fort were undertaken by Archaeological Services Durham University on 21 March 2012, These small posthole excavations revealed a possible stone floor or wall in posthole 6 (to the south of the Commandant's House) and posthole 12 (located to the east end of the barrack block XV). A fragment of Black-Burnished pottery and two others of brick or tile were found in posthole 8 (next to the bread oven south of the west gate of the fort). The three other postholes were excavated through stony silt deposits consistent with a build-up of soil over tumble from the fort buildings. (13)

Excavations on the north rampart of the fort in 1977-79 established that some structures survived behind the north rampart and had not been completely removed by Clayton's workmen in the 19th century. In 1978 it was found that a considerable amount of stratified deposit remained intact in this part of the fort. The 1979 season completed work started in 1978 on the north rampart, between the north gate and the north-eastern tower. The whole of this rampart-back area was consolidated by the DoE for public display. (14)

Examination of the evidence for metal working from excavations carried out by Daniels, Gillam and Crow between 1974 and 1981. The excavations were located in the north-east corner of the fort, examining one barrack block and the backs of the adjacent ramparts to the north and east. Most of the metal working debris was recovered from the rampart areas. In phase II the north and east ramparts were removed and several workshops and hearths of unknown purpose were constructed. The workshop areas recovered substantial quantities of crucibles, slag, moulds and copper alloy scrap and waste. The removal and reinstatement of the ramparts resulted in limited survival of deposits and features associated with the workshops. Much of the copper alloy debris came from a dumped deposit in the road surface outside the north workshop in the east rampart.
The material provides the strongest evidence yet recovered for the production of copper alloy military equipment within a Roman fort in Britain. The scale of production is difficult to assess but the survival of such a wide range of debris and the large quantities of crucible all point to production on a scale above that of occasional manufacture and repair. (15)

Four wooden artifacts (a wedge, half bung, peg and bung) were analysed from context H20/10/48 and the species of wood identified. Two objects were found to be made from hazel and two were made from exotic woods, Sweet Chestnut and Silver Fir. (16)

Sampling of waterlogged plant remains from a road surface outside the North Gate in 1984, recovered a large quantity of well-preserved organic material, especially wood, leather and bone. The plant remains are representative of several different environments, including grassland, wetland, disturbed ground and heathland. The sample probably represents domestic rubbish discarded from the fort onto the disused second century AD roadway. The rubbish was left to rot as is shown by the presence of fly puparia. The layer was damp but not totally waterlogged and ,easured 0.35m to 0.40m deep. (17)

The archaeological history of Housesteads Roman fort has been summarised by Birley to 1961 (18b), and Daniels has provided a description with a full bibliography to 1978 (18c). The fort was surveyed at 1:1000 by RCHME Newcastle as a part of the Housesteads Survey. (18a)

Full description of the remains. Excavations of the barrack block XIII and the NE curtain, were completed in 1981. In 1951 the fort and museum were placed under guardianship of the Ministry of Works; since then the fort wall, gates and internal buildings, laid bare by excavations, have been consolidated to ensure their preservation for the future. The fort is now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public; it is the most complete example of a Roman fort in Britain. Appendices containing detailed description of main archival holdings up to 1994. (18d)

Work started on Hadrian's Wall in 122, and shortly after in the area around Housesteads. The earliest structure is Turret 36b and a length of Broad wall foundation. Work then began on the fort with the North wall set forward of the earlier turf wall line. After completion of the fort, work continued on the Narrow Wall to the West of the fort. Like other forts on the Wall, it has the characteristic 'playing card' plan, the long axis parallel to the Wall. The alignment is East-North-East to West-South-West.

The curtain wall is 1.3m thick topped by a narrow wall walk. Originally this was backed by an earth rampart which would have provided a wider wall walk. Gateways flanked by towers on the short sides of the fort are centrally placed, but on the long sides they are displaced to two thirds of the distance from the western end. An intra-mural tower is placed at one third distance. Each corner contains a tower. Linking the North and South gates is the via principalis with six barrack blocks to the East of it. On its West side are, from South to North, the Commandants House, Headquarters, Granaries and the rectangular barrack building VII. On the West side of the Commandant's House is a rectangular building (Building XI) aligned North-South and to the North of that is the Hospital. Between this central complex and the West side of the fort are 5 rectangular barrack blocks and a workshop.

Only barrack blocks XIII and building XV have been excavated in recent times. Each early barracks was a long rectangular building parallel to the long axis of the fort. Each was subdivided into ten units with a separate large apartment for the centurion facing the intervallum street. A veranda ran the length of each barrack supported on timber or stone piers. Each was half-timbered, the timber, with wattle and daub infill, being set in a low sandstone wall bonded with clay. The roofs had a single ridge from West to East.

The headquarters building (principia) was a single-storeyed building divided into three parts. The main entrance was in line with the street leading from the East gate, the via praetoria. Within was an open court with a colonnade around the South, East and North sides. At the West side was a blank wall with a doorway leading to a cross hall, (basilica). A colonnaded aisle ran along the east side of the basilica, and beyond an archway opposite the doorway in the East side led directly to the chapel of the standards (aedes). A further four rooms, two either side of the aedes, are interpreted as administrative offices, but little survives of them.

South of the principia lies the commandant's house, (praetorium). The courtyard plan reflects that of Roman town houses throughout the Empire. Due to the slope, this has been a complex building with later alterations, and subsequent stone robbing has complicated interpretation. The West and North sides, and part of the East side, are Hadrianic, but the South and East sides are later Roman. The building may have been completed around the courtyard in timber originally, the later stone structures being servants quarters and stables. The Hadrianic rooms include two with hypocaust floors, a urinal and kitchen. It is not clear whether a bath suite also existed, although earlier excavations indicate an apsidal building at the South end of the adjacent building XI which may have been a bath suite.

The hospital (valetudinarium) lay North of the praetorium and West of the principia. The central courtyard was surrounded by a low wall supporting a colonnade. The long northern room was possibly the surgery. Smaller rooms surrounded the other sides, with a latrine in the South-West corner.

The granaries (horrea) were built on the highest, and therefore driest, part of the fort, a decision which necessitated the North fort wall extending beyond the line of Hadrian's wall and Turret 36b. The original granary was a wide hall internally 23.75m long by 13m wide, and divided by a row of six piers supporting a double span roof across the two aisles of the granary. At the West end were two separate doors to each aisle. The granary was altered by the addition of two cross walls aligned East-West.

The fort's bath-house stood 250m east of the fort across the valley of the Knag Burn. In the later 4th century the East end of building XV was remodelled to incorporate a bath-house, which may indicate a reduced garrison.

In the 3rd century, alterations were made to several buildings. The praetorium was slightly altered, the granaries appear to have been reduced in size, and the principia appears to have been provided with a second storey. The major feature of this period is a rebuilding of Building XV, probably as a stores.

Circa AD 300, and probably at the same time as the storehouse (Building XV) was built, the barracks were radically altered. Each barrack block was rebuilt with individual chalets for each soldier. Most have hearths, although braziers were also used. Some incorporate stonework from other buildings in the fort, particularly the gates, indicating a general period of reconstruction. In blocks XIII and XIV the centurion's quarters became communal rooms.

The defences were also modified during the fort's history. Repairs to the North and South walls were carried out towards the end of the 2nd century due to instability of the footings. This was concurrent with the construction of new buildings against the interior fort wall and a latrine in the South-East angle being rebuilt. A narrow curtain wall was was built circa 300 on the North rampart, a new rampart bank being constructed against the interior face. Further repairs were undertaken before the collapse of part of the North curtain wall after the mid 4th century.

The West gate had been blocked with stone and by the addition of two external banks and ditches, probably circa 300. At the same time the other gates were also partly rebuilt, the North gate from its foundations upwards, and the internal ramparts reinstated. The two internal interval towers between the North and South gates and the West side of the fort date from this period, as do the two internal towers in the South-East angle. In common with other forts along the Wall, the refurbishments followed the same design as the original Hadrianic forts, ignoring new fort design, such as those of the Saxon Shore forts, in favour of established, traditional fortification.

All of this evidence points to a relatively peaceful frontier with perhaps a small reduction in the effective strength of the garrison. The hospital and granary were converted to more domestic use, but whether this was military or domestic is not possible to establish, and the date of these changes is uncertain.

In the later 4th century, continuing problems of North curtain wall collapse led to successive repairs. It was successively widened, so much so that the intravallum road was reduced to only 1.4m wide. The stone interval tower on the North wall was replaced by a timber structure. The Southern towers were also remodelled, those in the South-West angle standing independently of the curtain wall.

Once Imperial authority collapsed in 407, the garrison abandoned the fort. There are no deposits of the 5th or 6th centuries to indicate inhabitation, although Bosanquet's 1898 excavation noted an apsidal ended building between barrack I and building VII. If it was a chapel, the apse is unusually at the West end. Within a water tank to the North of the `chapel' a stone lined cist was discovered, which is probably early Christian, and , it may be argued, strengthens the interpretation of the apsidal building being a chapel. It may be that this chapel was the garrison's chapel for the late 4th century garrison, and remained in use after the garrison departed. (18e)

The excavated remains of Housesteads fort are visible on air photographs and the main features mapped as part of the Hadrian's Wall National Mapping Project. (18f-h)

With regards to the fact that no trace of a viaduct has been found near the fort, it is argued that the known water tanks inside the fort were supplied by water which ran off the individual buildings within the fort, and was transported to the tanks by pipework. (18i)

Housesteads conservation plan, drawn up in 2002. (18j)

Additional reference looking at Roman military life at Housesteads. (18k)

A major work of synthesis on the site was published by English Heritage in 2009, including analysis of the excavations carried out between 1959-1961 by Durham University, those between 1974-1981 by Newcastle University as well as later work on the site. Volume one deals with the structures and history of the site, whilst volume 2 examines the finds assemblages from the site. The volumes deal not only with the 300 year long Roman use of the site, but also the post-Roman history of the site, particularly the transition from Roman to early medieval. Recent thought is that there may be some evidence for late repairs, some late ephemeral stone structures and possible post-Roman occupation. The possible church with an associated cist burial in the north-east of the site has been tentatively dated to around 400AD or later in the 5th century. (18l)

Housesteads is marked on the archaeological map of Hadrian's Wall published by English Heritage in 2010. (18m)

Several depictions from the James Irwin Coates archive (1877-1896). (18n)

Geophysical survey was undertaken in 2003 to the south and west of the fort. (18o)

Housesteads is a Roman fort constructed adjacent to Hadrian's wall and about midway along it for which work began AD 122. It was in use up to the 5th century and then largely abandoned. 16th century it was taken over by a lawless community on the Anglo-Scottish border. It has been the focus of archaeological research since the 19th century. The buildings comprised barracks, administration and support, officer's house, granaries, bakery, hospital, latrines and headquarters. Constructed inside the fort in the late 4th century is a small bath house. A civilian settlement (vicus) lay to the south of the fort (record 1407196). For further details and a guide and history of the fort see Red guide (18p)

General association with HER 6554 (Turret 36b), HER 6555 (Milecastle 37), HER 6565 (cist), HER 6578 (quarry), HER 6568 (barrow), HER 6651 (Knag Burn Gateway), HER 6652 (quarries), HER 6668 (Mithraeum), HER 6670 (Roman well), HER 15281 (Roman temples), HER 6673 (Housesteads bath house), HER 15281 ( Housesteads Vicus), HER 32445 (quarries), HER 6666 (lime kiln), HER 33133 (Housesteads Apsidal Building), HER 33154 (Housesteads Vicus), HER 33140 (banks). (18)