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The Roman Fort at Nanstallon, Cornwall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Aileen Fox  and
William Ravenhill
Aileen Fox
Affiliation:
The University of Exeter
William Ravenhill
Affiliation:
The University of Exeter
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Extract

The rectangular earthwork on Tregear Farm, Nanstallon, just west of Bodmin has long been suspected to be of Roman origin. When the eastern rampart was levelled in the early nineteenth century and those on the other three sides were cut back and reduced to typical high Cornish hedge banks, coins of Vespasian and some first-century pottery were found, including pieces of a samian form 29 and a stamped mortarium. The finds were deposited in the Bodmin Museum, where they were seen by Haverfield when he was preparing his account of Romano-British Cornwall for the Victoria County History. He tentatively suggested that the earthwork was a fort, or possibly ‘a protection for immigrant traders’, shrewdly observing that its occupation was of brief duration. Hencken in 1932 referred to it only as ‘a little frontier settlement’ and the Ordnance Survey Roman Britain map of 1956 also marked it simply as a settlement site. The generally accepted opinion was that the Roman campaigns and military occupation did not extend beyond the Fosse Way or, at most, the river Exe.

Type
Research Article
Information
Britannia , Volume 3 , November 1972 , pp. 56 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © Aileen Fox and William Ravenhill 1972. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

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8 Reproduced byHaverfield, VCH 5, p. 7. No trace remains of the four barrows mapped around the fort.

9 Samples were sent to Mrs. G. Wilson who reported that no plant-remains were present.

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45 Information from Dr. W. H. Manning, University College, Cardiff. Only two post-holes were found at Nanstallon but two others could easily have been missed in our haste to complete the excavation in 1966: they have been restored on FIG. 13, as necessary supports for seating.

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