The Greensforge complex in south Staffordshire comprises a sequence of Roman military installations on the west bank of Smestow Brook, including a fort and at least two temporary marching camps identified through aerial photography and geophysics. The camps likely belong to the conquest-period or early Flavian campaigns into the West Midlands and Welsh Marches (mid-to-late 1st century AD), serving as overnight or short-stay encampments for troops on the move rather than permanent garrison posts.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Greensforge lies on a strategic line of communication between the legionary base at Wroxeter and the Severn crossings, and the clustering of camps here indicates repeated military use of the site as a staging post during the advance into Wales. It is one of the more important marching-camp groupings in the West Midlands, evidencing campaign-era troop movements through a region otherwise dominated by later civilian settlement.
The site is known primarily through cropmarks and aerial reconnaissance, supplemented by limited excavation that has identified ditch circuits and confirmed Roman date, though no substantial published programme of excavation exists for the marching camps specifically. Surface finds and the adjacent fort suggest associated activity, but internal structures within the camps remain essentially undocumented.
The Greensforge complex in south Staffordshire comprises a sequence of Roman military installations on the west bank of Smestow Brook, including a fort and at least two temporary marching camps identified through aerial photography and geophysics. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a military camp site from the Roman period in Britain.
Two Roman camps near Greensforge is classified as a Roman military camp — 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 Roman camps at Greensforge (0.7 km), Roman camp 600yds (550m) WSW of Swindon iron works (1.9 km), Engine Arm Aqueduct, Warley (16.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Two Roman camps near Greensforge