Turret 42B is one of the standard interval turrets built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, located west of Great Chesters fort (Aesica) in the central sector of the Wall in Northumberland. Like its paired neighbours, it was constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian and functioned as a small observation and signalling post, garrisoned by a handful of men detached from the nearest fort. Turrets in this stretch typically remained in use into the later 2nd century before many were abandoned and demolished, their recesses walled up in the curtain.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As part of the linked system of milecastles, turrets, and forts, 42B contributed to the close-interval surveillance regime along the Wall, with sightlines covering the approaches to the Caw Gap and Cawfields area. It has no particular individual prominence in the scholarship — its significance is collective, as one element of the Wall's frontier architecture.
Turret 42B is one of the standard interval turrets built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, located west of Great Chesters fort (Aesica) in the central sector of the Wall in Northumberland. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 42B (Great Chesters) 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 Burnhead Roman temporary camp (0.2 km), Great Chesters Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall between the Caw Burn and the track to Cockmount Hill farm in wall miles 42 and 43 (0.3 km), Chesters Pike Roman temporary camp (0.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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