A fragment of a large building inscription was found in the courtyard of the principia at Ribchester in 1908 (RIB 591). It is restored: [Imp. Caes….]│Avg. [et … ]│Avg. [et …]│ Cafesari … vexillatio legionis sextae Vict]│ric[is … leg.]│Av[gg ….]. The repeated Avg. and the erased Ca in line 4 show that it was set up in 198–209.

In the story of imperial Rome no period can be more obscure than that which elapsed between the death of Severus Alexander and the accession of Diocletian (235-84). Here the historian faces a dearth of reliable literary information. Inscriptions and papyri are also in short supply; and consequently recourse must be had to more controversial sources of knowledge—numismatics and archaeology. Thus problems abound. The very chronology of the age is still disputed; and in this dispute the question which continues to attract most attention is that relating to the dates of the so-called ‘Gallic emperors’ who governed an independent west, quite separate from Rome, during the middle years of the third century.

The Romano-British lead-mining complex at Charterhouse-on-Mendip has long been recognised as amongst the most important industrial sites within the British province. This paper brings together the results of the recent English Heritage earthwork survey of the site which has enabled for the frst time the full characterisation of the settlement and its relationship with the core mining zones of the Blackmoor and Velvet Bottom valleys. It has also allowed a reassessment of life within an industrial settlement such as Charterhouse which challenges many preconceived perceptions of these settlement forms.

In October 1970 the South Oxfordshire Hunt was crossing a field on Little Baldon Farm when one of their number observed some sherds lying on the newly ploughed surface. One of the first pieces to be recovered was a fine example of a moulded face from the neck of a flagon (No. I, below). Further investigation revealed much Romano-British pottery turned up by deep ploughing, and M. Aston and C. Young reported: ‘Fragments of mortaria, red colourcoated pottery and kiln debris indicate the site of workshops and perhaps 8 or 9 kilns.’ The site is in Toot Baldon parish, Oxfordshire, and towards the southern end of the Oxford potteries.

Evaluation excavations undertaken in early 1994 revealed elements of a ditch system and a pottery kiln within the confines of RAF Catterick (NGR SE 24350 96900). The site is located on river gravels close to their interface with the Boulder Clays that occupy the areas to the west and south. The River Swale lies some 700 m to the east and the site forms part of the Roman roadside settlement known at Bainesse Farm located on Dere Street some 2 km south of Cataractonium Roman town. Other work undertaken as part of the evaluation programme demonstrated that the roadside settlement extended for up to 750 m south of Bainesse Farm, which indicates that the site extends for approximately 1 km along Dere Street. There is little or no evidence for the presence of structures on side roads away from Dere Street, although the work undertaken in 1981–82 did demonstrate the existence of two strip-buildings, set one behind the other, in some of the building plots. The kiln site lies on the eastern periphery of the settlement and is quite possibly part of a zone of industrial activity around the fringes of the site. The latter suggestion arises from the discovery of a scatter of slag during fieldwalking undertaken as part of the evaluation that appeared to define the limits of the settlement to the south and west.