Turret 40B (Melkridge) was one of the regularly-spaced stone watch towers built into Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 40 (Winshields) and 41 (Melkridge) in the central sector of the frontier. Constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian, it would have stood roughly one-third of a Roman mile west of MC41, set on the high ground east of Winshields Crag, and likely functioned into the later 2nd century before, like many central-sector turrets, probably being abandoned and walled up during the Antonine or later reorganisations of the Wall.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As a small two-storey observation and signalling post, it formed part of the integrated surveillance system linking milecastles and turrets along the Wall, allowing visual communication across the dramatic Whin Sill ridgeline. It has no particular individual prominence, deriving its importance from its place within the regular pattern of the frontier.
Very little has been published on Turret 40B specifically; unlike its better-known neighbours on the central crags, it has not been the subject of major modern excavation, and its remains are not visible above ground. Its existence and approximate location are inferred from the standard Hadrianic spacing of turrets and from antiquarian/MOLA-type survey work along this stretch rather than from substantive finds.
Turret 40B (Melkridge) was one of the regularly-spaced stone watch towers built into Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 40 (Winshields) and 41 (Melkridge) in the central sector of the frontier. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 40B (Melkridge) 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 Milecastle 41 (Melkridge) (0.5 km), Turret 40A (Winshields) (0.6 km), Hadrian's Wall (0.7 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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