Strutt's Park was a pre-Flavian auxiliary fort established on the west bank of the river Derwent, almost certainly during the Roman advance into the Midlands under governor Ostorius Scapula or shortly after, in the AD 50s–60s. It was relatively short-lived: the garrison was withdrawn and the position abandoned around AD 70–80, when a new fort was built directly across the river at Little Chester (Derventio), suggesting a deliberate relocation rather than continuous occupation.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The fort guarded a crossing of the Derwent on the route between the legionary base at Wroxeter and the lead-mining and frontier zones to the north, forming part of the early network of garrisons securing the territory of the Corieltauvi. Its supersession by Derventio illustrates the Flavian-period rationalisation of military dispositions in the East Midlands.
Little survives above ground; the site is known mainly from cropmarks, antiquarian observation, and limited rescue excavation in the 20th century, which identified defensive ditches and traces of internal timber buildings consistent with a turf-and-timber auxiliary fort. Pottery recovered is characteristically pre-Flavian, including Claudio-Neronian samian and coarse wares, which underpins the dating, but no detailed plan of the interior has been recovered.
Strutt's Park was a pre-Flavian auxiliary fort established on the west bank of the river Derwent, almost certainly during the Roman advance into the Midlands under governor Ostorius Scapula or shortly after, in the AD 50s–60s. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Strutt's Park Roman fort 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 Littlechester Roman site (0.4 km), Roman bath house at Parker's Piece (0.4 km), Derby Racecourse Roman vicus and cemetery (1.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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