Ancaster (Roman name uncertain, possibly *Causennae*) was a small walled town in Lincolnshire situated on Ermine Street between Lincoln (*Lindum*) and the crossing of the Nene at Water Newton. It developed from a mid-1st century military post into a civilian settlement that flourished from the 2nd through 4th centuries AD, eventually being enclosed by stone walls and earthen ramparts in the later Roman period, with an extramural roadside settlement and substantial cemeteries.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Ancaster served as a road station and local market centre for the surrounding fertile limestone landscape of the Lincolnshire Edge, and was significant enough to warrant late Roman defences — placing it among the second tier of small walled towns in the East Midlands. It is also notable as the find-spot of a dedication to the local god *Viridios*, indicating an active native religious cult under Roman rule.
Excavations have revealed the defensive circuit (walls, ditches, and corner towers), strip buildings fronting Ermine Street, and extensive late Roman cemeteries — including one excavated in the 1960s–70s producing hundreds of inhumations, some decapitated, characteristic of late Roman rural cemeteries in the region. Finds include the Viridios altar, sculpture fragments, coins, and pottery; a Christian presence in the late 4th century has been suggested but is not securely demonstrated.
Ancaster (Roman name uncertain, possibly *Causennae*) was a small walled town in Lincolnshire situated on Ermine Street between Lincoln (*Lindum*) and the crossing of the Nene at Water Newton. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Ancaster Roman settlement is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian 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 (0.4 km), Roman marching camp (1.2 km), Roman villa, Haceby (7.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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