Turret 17A (Welton East) was one of the regularly spaced stone watch towers built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 17 (Welton) and 18 (East Wallhouses) in the central sector east of the North Tyne. Like other turrets on the Wall, it was constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian and would have been manned by a small detachment (probably 4–8 men) drawn from auxiliary units based at the Wall forts, functioning as an observation and signalling post until at least the later 2nd century.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its role was tactical surveillance and inter-tower signalling along a stretch of Wall running across the gently rolling country between Halton Chesters and Rudchester forts, providing continuous line-of-sight oversight of approaches from the north. It is not individually notable in the literature and is significant chiefly as part of the systematic turret system rather than for any unique feature.
Very little is published specifically on Turret 17A; in this sector the Wall and its turrets are largely buried beneath or alongside the B6318 Military Road, and the site has not seen substantial modern excavation. Comparable turrets in the sector (e.g. 18A, 19A) have yielded standard recessed-tower plans with a ground-floor hearth, a stone stair-base, and 2nd-century coarseware and Samian, and a similar character can reasonably be inferred here, though this remains unconfirm
Turret 17A (Welton East) was one of the regularly spaced stone watch towers built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 17 (Welton) and 18 (East Wallhouses) in the central sector east of the North Tyne. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 17A (Welton East) is classified as a Roman watch tower — 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 Turret 17B (0.5 km), Milecastle 17 (Welton) (0.5 km), Milecastle 18 (East Wallhouses) (1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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