Turret 20B (Downhill East) was one of the regularly spaced stone watch towers built along Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 20 and 21 in the central-eastern sector west of Halton Chesters fort. Like other turrets in this stretch, it would have been a small two-storey structure (roughly 4–5 m square internally) built into the curtain wall, active from c. AD 122 into the later 2nd century, with most turrets in this sector decommissioned and walled up during the Antonine or early Severan reorganisation.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its function was observation and signalling along the Wall corridor, providing line-of-sight communication between adjacent milecastles and forts (notably Halton Chesters to the west) rather than serving as a customs or garrison post in its own right. It is not individually notable within the Wall system.
Very little has been published specifically on Turret 20B; the stretch of Wall here lies beneath or close to the B6318 Military Road, which has destroyed or obscured many structures in this sector, and the turret has not been the subject of significant modern excavation. Its existence is inferred from the regular turret spacing established by the systematic surveys of the Wall rather than from substantial excavated remains.
Turret 20B (Downhill East) was one of the regularly spaced stone watch towers built along Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 20 and 21 in the central-eastern sector west of Halton Chesters fort. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 20B (Downhill 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 Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Sunnybrae at Halton Shields and Haltonchesters Roman fort in wall miles 20 and 21 (0.3 km), Turret 20A (Carr Hill) (0.4 km), Milecastle 21 (Down Hill) (0.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
Aubrey Research generates detailed historical reports for any location in Britain, incorporating Roman heritage, Domesday Book records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and much more. Enter a nearby address to begin.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Turret 20B (Downhill East)