Navio was a Roman auxiliary fort situated on a promontory above the River Noe at Brough-on-Noe in the Peak District, controlling routes through the Hope Valley. Established in the Flavian period (c. AD 75–80), it was abandoned around AD 120, rebuilt on a different alignment by AD 154 (as attested by a building inscription of Antoninus Pius), and saw further occupation into the third and fourth centuries.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Navio's strategic importance lay in its supervision of the lead-mining district of the Derbyshire Peak — a significant imperial resource — and its position on the road linking Brough to Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae) and Templeborough. It functioned as both a garrison post and a centre for oversight of mineral extraction in the surrounding region.
Excavations, notably by Garstang in 1903 and later work by Jones and Wild in the 1960s–70s, have revealed the stone-built fort defences, a stone-flagged headquarters building (principia) with an underground strongroom, and traces of an extramural vicus to the north. The Antonine rebuilding inscription (RIB 283), recording reconstruction of the principia by Cohors I Aquitanorum under the governor Iulius Verus, is among the most important finds; the garrison in the second-century phase is securely attested as this unit.
Navio was a Roman auxiliary fort situated on a promontory above the River Noe at Brough-on-Noe in the Peak District, controlling routes through the Hope Valley. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Navio 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 Romano-British farmstead 475m east of Ladybower Inn (4.7 km), Romano-British farmstead and post-medieval charcoal burning site 570m north east of Ladybower Inn (5 km), The Warren Romano-British settlement, 320m north west of North Lees Hall (5.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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