This earthwork bank marks part of the defensive circuit of the small Roman town at Lactodurum (modern Towcester), Northamptonshire, situated on Watling Street roughly midway between Verulamium and Bannaventa. The town developed from the mid-1st century AD as a roadside settlement and grew into a defended small town by the later 2nd century, remaining occupied through the 4th century.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Lactodurum was a typical "small town" of Roman Britain, functioning as a local market and posting station (mansio) on Watling Street, serving the agricultural hinterland of the south Midlands. Its defences, of which this bank is a surviving section, place it among the substantial walled small towns of the province, indicating a level of administrative or economic importance worth fortifying.
Excavations in Towcester (notably at Park Street, Alchester Road, and along the defences) have revealed the rampart's construction with an earthen bank later fronted by a stone wall, ditches, timber and stone buildings, pottery kilns, and evidence of ironworking, with finds spanning the late 1st to late 4th centuries. The 170m surviving length north of Brackley Road preserves the western circuit, though it has seen limited modern excavation in this specific stretch.
This earthwork bank marks part of the defensive circuit of the small Roman town at Lactodurum (modern Towcester), Northamptonshire, situated on Watling Street roughly midway between Verulamium and Bannaventa. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Bank of Roman town 550ft (170m) in length N of Brackley Road and W of High Street 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 Lactodorum (0.4 km), Whittlebury (4.9 km), Roman villa SE of Stokegap Lodge (6.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Bank of Roman town 550ft (170m) in length N of Brackley Road and W of High Street