Greensforge is a Roman military complex on the Smestow Brook in South Staffordshire, comprising a fort and at least three or four temporary marching camps of differing sizes clustered around it. The site was active in the conquest period, broadly mid- to later 1st century AD, and likely served as a forward base during the Roman advance into the West Midlands and Welsh borders, possibly linked to operations under Ostorius Scapulus or later Flavian campaigns.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Greensforge is one of the few known Roman military installations in the South Staffordshire/Worcestershire borderland, lying on a probable route between Metchley (Birmingham) and the legionary base at Wroxeter, and it marks a logistical node in the network of campaign bases used to consolidate the territory of the Cornovii and Dobunni. The presence of multiple camps of varying sizes alongside a fort makes it unusually informative about troop concentrations and successive phases of occupation.
The fort and camps were identified largely through aerial photography in the 20th century, with cropmarks revealing rampart and ditch circuits; limited excavation has confirmed Roman date and produced some 1st-century pottery, but the site has seen no large-scale modern excavation and much detail of its internal layout and precise chronology remains unresolved.
Greensforge is a Roman military complex on the Smestow Brook in South Staffordshire, comprising a fort and at least three or four temporary marching camps of differing sizes clustered around it. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a military camp site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman camps at Greensforge 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 (0.7 km), Roman camp 600yds (550m) WSW of Swindon iron works (2.1 km), Engine Arm Aqueduct, Warley (16.1 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 camps at Greensforge