Turret 58B (Newtown) was one of the regularly-spaced stone watch towers built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall in the 120s AD, situated between Milecastle 58 (Newtown) and Milecastle 59 (Old Wall) in the central-western sector west of the River Irthing. Like other turrets on this stretch, it would have been a small two-storey tower roughly 4–5m square internally, projecting south from the Wall and garrisoned by a handful of soldiers detached from the nearest auxiliary fort, most likely Castlesteads (Camboglanna).
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As part of the systematic surveillance network of paired turrets between each milecastle, 58B contributed to signalling, observation and control of movement along the Wall corridor in the Irthing–Eden lowland, where the frontier crosses gently rolling agricultural land. It has no particular individual distinction in the literature, being one of the more obscure turrets on the line.
Very little is published on Turret 58B specifically; its position is known from the regular spacing of the Wall system and from antiquarian and survey work rather than from any significant modern excavation, and no upstanding remains are visible at the site today. Whether it followed the standard pattern of second-century abandonment and demolition seen at many central-sector turrets (e.g. on Birdoswald's flanks) is not securely established for this turret.
Turret 58B (Newtown) was one of the regularly-spaced stone watch towers built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall in the 120s AD, situated between Milecastle 58 (Newtown) and Milecastle 59 (Old Wall) in the central-western sector west of the River Irthing. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 58B 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 59 (Old Wall) (0.5 km), Turret 58A (0.5 km), Turret 59A (1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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