Ancaster lies on Ermine Street where the road crosses a gap in the Lincoln Edge, and originated as a mid-1st century AD Roman fort planted over a substantial Late Iron Age Corieltauvian settlement. The military phase appears short-lived (likely Neronian–early Flavian), after which the site developed into a small walled roadside town that endured into the late 4th century, eventually defended by stone walls, a ditch system and projecting bastions.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Ancaster controlled a strategic communications pinch-point between Lincoln (Lindum) and the Nene valley, and was part of the early conquest-period network of garrisons securing the East Midlands behind the advancing frontier. Its later civilian phase is notable for a major Christian-era cemetery and evidence of religious activity, including dedications to the local god Viridios.
The fort itself is poorly defined: cropmarks, antiquarian finds and limited excavation (including work by Trent & Peak / Nottingham and earlier investigations such as those by Mahany) have suggested an early military presence beneath the later town, but no full plan of defences has been recovered. Better documented are the town's stone walls and bastions, extramural cemeteries with hundreds of inhumations (many oriented and likely Christian), and the inscribed altars to Viridios, including one recovered in 2002.
Ancaster lies on Ermine Street where the road crosses a gap in the Lincoln Edge, and originated as a mid-1st century AD Roman fort planted over a substantial Late Iron Age Corieltauvian settlement. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Ancaster is classified as a Roman fort — a military site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Ancaster Roman settlement (0.4 km), Roman marching camp (0.8 km), Roman villa, Haceby (7.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
Aubrey Research generates detailed historical reports for any location in Britain, incorporating Roman heritage, Domesday Book records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and much more. Enter a nearby address to begin.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Ancaster