This is a Roman temporary marching camp located on the south Staffordshire plateau west-south-west of Swindon (near Wombourne), in the vicinity of the iron-working complex that gave the modern village its name. As a temporary camp it would have served to house troops on the move — likely a single night or short-stay encampment — though its precise date within the Roman period (probably 1st–2nd century AD) is not securely established.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The camp lies in a militarised corridor between the legionary fortress at Wroxeter (Viroconium) to the north-west and the forts of the West Midlands frontier system, and its position close to known Roman iron-working sites in the Smestow valley may indicate a connection between troop movements and the exploitation or supervision of local iron resources.
The site is known principally from aerial photography and earthwork/cropmark survey rather than excavation, with the defining feature being the cropmark trace of a rectilinear ditched enclosure typical of Roman temporary camps; published excavated detail on this specific camp is very limited and finds assemblages are not substantially recorded.
This is a Roman temporary marching camp located on the south Staffordshire plateau west-south-west of Swindon (near Wombourne), in the vicinity of the iron-working complex that gave the modern village its name. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a military camp site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman camp 600yds (550m) WSW of Swindon iron works is classified as a Roman military camp — 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 Two Roman camps near Greensforge (1.9 km), Roman camps at Greensforge (2.1 km), Engine Arm Aqueduct, Warley (16.8 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 Roman camp 600yds (550m) WSW of Swindon iron works