Roman Britain in 1914 | Page 4

sight of (p. 35).

(viii) Ambleside Fort. The excavation of the Roman fort in Borrans
Field near Ambleside, noted in my Report for 1913 (p. 13), was
continued by Mr. R. G. Collingwood, Fellow of Pembroke College,
Oxford, and others with much success. The examination of the
ramparts, gates, and turrets was completed; that of the main interior
buildings was brought near completion, and a beginning was made on
the barracks, sufficient to show that they were, at least in part, made of
wood.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. BORRANS FORT, AMBLESIDE
(I. Granaries; II. Head-quarters; III. Commandant's House; A. Cellar; B.
Hearth or Kiln; C. Deposit of corn; D. Ditch perhaps belonging to
earliest fort; E. Outer Court of Head-quarters; F. Inner Court)]
The fort, as is now clear (fig. 2), was an oblong enclosure of about 300
× 420 feet, nearly 3 acres. Round it ran a wall of roughly coursed stone
4 feet thick, with a clay ramp behind and a ditch in front. Turrets stood
at its corners. Four gates gave access to it; three of them were single
and narrow, while the fourth, the east gate, was double and was flanked
by two guard-chambers. As usual, the chief buildings stood in a row
across the interior. Building I--see plan, fig. 2--was a pair of granaries,
each 66 feet long, with a space between. They were of normal plan,
with external buttresses, basement walls, and ventilating windows (not
shown on plan). The space between them, 15 feet wide, contained
marks of an oven or ovens (plan, B) and also some corn (plan, C) and
may have been at one time used for drying grain stored in the granaries;
how far it was roofed is doubtful. Building II, the Principia or
Praetorium, a structure of 68 × 76 feet, much resembled the Principia at
Hardknot, ten miles west of Ambleside, but possessed distinct features.
As the plan shows, it had an entrance from the east, the two usual
courts (EF), and the offices which usually face on to the inner court F.
These offices, however, were only three in number instead of five,
unless wooden partitions were used. Under the central office, the
sacellum of the fort, where the standards and the altars for the official
worship of the garrison are thought to have been kept, our fort had, at A,
a sunk room or cellar, 6 feet square, entered by a stone stair. Such

cellars occur at Chesters, Aesica, and elsewhere and probably served as
strong-rooms for the regimental funds. At Chesters, the cellar had stone
vaulting; at Ambleside there is no sign of this, and timber may have
been used. In the northernmost room of the Principia some corn and
woodwork as of a bin were noted (plan, C). The inner court F seemed
to Mr. Collingwood to have been roofed; in its north end was a
detached room, such as occurs at Chesters, of unknown use, which
accords rather ill with a roof. In the colonnade round the outer court E
were vestiges of a hearth or oven (plan, B). Building III (70 × 80 feet)
is that usually called the commandant's house; it seems to show the
normal plan of rooms arranged round a cloister enclosing a tiny open
space. In buildings II and III, at D, traces were detected as of ditches
and walling belonging to a fort older and probably smaller than that
revealed by the excavation generally.
Small finds include coins of Faustina Iunior, Iulia Domna, and Valens,
Samian of about A.D. 80 and later, including one or two bits of German
Samian, a silver spoon, some glass, iron, and bronze objects, a leaden
basin (?), and seven more leaden sling-bullets. It now seems clear that
the fort was established about the time of Agricola (A.D. 80-5), though
perhaps in smaller dimensions than those now visible, and was held till
at least A.D. 365. Mr. Collingwood inclines to the view that it was
abandoned after A.D. 85 and reoccupied under or about the time of
Hadrian. The stratification of the turrets seems to show that it was
destroyed once or twice in the second or third centuries, but the
evidence is not wholly clear in details. The granaries seem to have been
rebuilt once and the rooms of the commandant's house mostly have two
floors.
(ix) Lancaster. In October and November 1914, structural remains
thought to be Roman, including 'an old Roman fireplace, circular in
shape, with stone flues branching out', were noted in the garden of St.
Mary's vicarage. The real meaning of the find seems doubtful.
(x) Ribchester. In the spring of 1913 a small school-building was pulled
down at Ribchester, and the Manchester Classical Association was able
to resume its examination of the Principia (praetorium) of the Roman

fort, above a part