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The Roman Fort at Colwyn Castle, Powys (Radnorshire)

Author(s): Sheppard FrereSource: Britannia, Vol. 35 (2004), pp. 115-120Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4128623

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T h e R o m a n F o r t a t Co lwyn C a s t l e ,P o w y s (Radnorshire)

By SHEPPARDFREREhe presence of a Roman fort beneaththe Normanmotte-and-baileycastle, itself undermodemfarm buildings at Colwyn Castle (Fforest Farm), Hundred House (SO 1075 5396), was firstsuggested by C.J. Spurgeon in 1974,1 and was confirmed the following year by excavationin the south-westernbailey2 and again in 1982 by furtherobservations, when 54 stanchion-holeswere dug by machine for the uprightsof a large new sheep-shed.3The 1975 excavations examineddeposits immediately to the rear of the north-west rampart(FIG.1). Fragments of Roman potterywere associated with the primarydeposits which overlay the gravelly clay subsoil. Unfortunately,torrentialrainprecluded furtherexcavation.Peter Webster'sreporton the scanty sherdsrecovered in these excavations, kindly made availableby J.L. Davies, suggests a date for the occupation of the fort 'in the mid to late first century, andoccupation into the early second century can certainly not be ruled out'; the few Roman sherds oflater date he considered more likely to belong to post-militaryagriculturalactivity. This judgementwisely left undecidedthe precise period of the fort's establishmentbut, like the majorityof forts inWales, it seems certainlyto have been held in the Flavianperiod. Inthe absence hitherto of evidenceof an earlierdate, it has been accepted as a Flavianfoundation.4The presentpaper suggests an earlierdate.The Norman castle, caput of the medieval lordship of Colwyn, was in existence before 1144, inwhich year it is recorded as having been rebuilt.5The earthworkscover c. 3.96 ha (9.8 acres) andconsist of a low motte and a large bailey, the south-western part of which utilized the site of theRoman fort, new ground being taken in on the north and east. The motte and much of the groundimmediately south of it are occupied today by the buildings of Fforest Farm. The surroundingrampartappears o be of dump-construction, .e. with a sloping front;save at one point, it completelyconceals the underlying rampartof the Roman fort, which was probably of turf-construction,orcertainlyturf-fronted,originally providing a much steeperprofile. The exception is a short length ofbank(FIG. ) turning n towardsthe south-eastbut seemingly then cut off by the motte's counterscarpbank.It is taken to markthe fort's northernangle. If so, the Normanmotte is situatedover the site ofthe NE gate in a manner reminiscent of the relationshipbetween forts and early medieval castles atTomen-y-Murand Beulah, whereby the fort defences formed the bailey.The size of the Roman fort is by no means certain,but on the assumptionthat the south-westernrampartof the bailey overlies that of the Roman fort, and that the northernangle has been correctly

identified,the fort would seem to be nearly squareand to cover an areaof c. 2.79 ha (6.9 acres). Thisis slightly largerthan its neighbour, the similarly almost square large pre-Flavian fort at Hindwell

1 Spurgeon 1974.2 Davies and Spurgeon 1975.3 Musson and Bennison 1982. See also Frere 1983, 280-1; also a note in the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust'sReview of Projects (November 1982), with fig. of two coarse-ware vessels from the 1982 investigation which are dated byP.V.Webster to the late first/early second centuryA.D.4 Arnold and Davies 2000, 16, fig. 2.2c; Manning 2001, maps on pp. 15 and 27.5 Hogg and King 1963, 109.

? World opyrighteserved.ExclusiveLicence o Publish:TheSociety or the Promotion f RomanStudies2004

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THE ROMAN FORTATCOLWYNCASTLE,POWYS (RADNORSHIRE) 117

Farm,Walton(2.46 ha), a somewhat surprisingconclusion, but one which would supportargumentsthat it was a pre-Flavianfoundation.6During a visit to the site in June 2003 Mr George Barstow, the present owner, showed me threesizeable sherds from a samian dish, form Dr. 15/17, together with the fragmentarybase of an off-white jug; Mrs Barstow had found these lying on a dump of earth which had been piled over thefront slope of the rampartby a badgerwhile excavating its sett in or beneath the front of the bank,at a point where this adjoins the sheep-shed of 1982 (FIG.1). The sett had clearly been made aconsiderabletime previously, for the dumpedsoil was now hard and compact;nor were tracksof theformeroccupants to be seen afterwet weather.Dishes of form 15/17 were in production during both the pre-Flavian and Flavian periods, butthe presentvessel has the distinctive glaze and fabric of the formerperiod and could probablyhavebeen made before A.D.60.7 In the hope of finding furtherevidence, arrangementswere made to siftthrough he badger's dump,a small-scale excavation which did not necessitate applicationto CADWfor Scheduled MonumentConsent (nowadays a cumbersomeandtime-consuming procedure),sinceit involved only a minor repairto the profile of the rampartwithout penetrationof stratifiedlevels.I am very grateful to Dr Sian Rees, the Inspector for Ancient Monuments, for arrangingthat theproposedwork should be carriedout on 14 and 15 October2003 by the Field MonumentWarden orPowys, MrIan Halfpenney.He strovemanfully with help from Geoffrey Dannell and MrBarstow inintractablematerial(FIG.1).Unfortunately the dump proved to be devoid of finds save for a few tiny undatable sherds ofRoman coarse ware, and one small badger-scratched ragmentof a pre-Flaviandish, not Dr. 15/17but not furtheridentifiable; this failure to recover more datable material is a matter of regret, forthe foundation-dateof this Roman fort may carry interesting implications concerning the Romanadvance into central Wales.8 The pre-Flavian possibility implied by the presence of two samiandishes is strengthenednot only by the apparent arge size and the shape of the fort, which links itwith Hindwell Farm,butalso by the evident awkwardnessof location between it andthe Flavian fortat Castell Collen, which lies only 10.3 km away to the north-west but without any surviving traceof a directroad between the two. The possibility, therefore, of a pre-Flaviandate for Colwyn Castleseems worthy of further discussion. The original account of its discovery, indeed, suggested thatColwyn Castle lay on a roadconnecting Clyrowith Castell Collen,9butthis now appearsimprobablein view of the discordantoccupation-datesof the two establishments. Such a road might have run,however, from Clyro as far as Colwyn Castle. Certainly there must have been a road to the eastconnectingColwyn Castlewith the pre-Flavianfortat Hindwell Farm,Walton,10or its course is stillobvious fromthe latter site as far westwards as New Radnor,afterwhich it probablyranup the southside of the Summergil Brook and then skirted round the east and south sides of Gwaunceste Hill,where it might have connected with the roadfrom Clyro, if that existed (FIG. ).That this suggested pre-Flavianroad terminatedat Colwyn Castle seems unlikely, for that fort,unlike Hindwell Farm,does not commanda broadtractof habitableterritory, uch as is found in theWye valley north of Builth Wells, only c. 7 km furtherwest, and which was supervised by the laterfort at Castell Collen." It is truethat the fort does block a secondary route leading from the mouthof the Wye gorge near Builth northwardstowards Penybont and the south end of the Aran valley

6 Flavian forts in Wales are normally smaller and more oblong: e.g. Castell Collen 2.04 ha, Tomen-y-Mur 1.34 ha,Caer Gai (Bala) c. 1.69 ha, Trawscoed 2.05 ha. The Flavian ala-fort at Brecon has an area of 3.14 ha.7 Geoffrey Dannell has kindly reportedthatabouta quarterof the dish survives; it has a fine paste and light-brown-redmatt slip, which is typical of pre-Flavian samian made at La Graufesenque(Aveyron, France).8 See the discussion in Frere 1987, 68-71.9 Spurgeon 1974, 21.10 For this site see St Joseph 1973, 239-40 with plan; and Davies 1999, 68-70.11 For the relevance of this to the strategy of the pre-Flavianpenetration into centralWales, see Frere 1987, 68-71.

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118 SHEPPARDFRERE

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FIG. 2. Map to illustratethe Romanadvance into centralWales. Hillforts are indicatedby oval symbols. Scale 1:436,000.(Note GH = GwauncesteHill.)

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THE ROMAN FORTAT COLWYNCASTLE,POWYS (RADNORSHIRE) 119

(FIG. ), but until the establishmentof Castell Collen this left unguarded he nearbymore open routenorthward rom Builth towardsLlandrindodWells. As a road terminusColwyn Castle seems to lackplannedpurpose.

The 1:25,000 OrdnanceSurvey map shows possible indications of a Roman road runningover alow pass throughthe range of hills north-west of the fort as far as 'MountainView' (SO 065 572),where it turns south-westwardsto aim at the crossing of the Wye at Penmincae(SO 005 039), beingjoined en route by the road which was built in Flavian times from Castell Collen to the same Wyecrossing. Although the date when the fortlet at Penmincae was first established is still uncertain,12protectionof the crossing-point of this majorriver must have been coeval with the firstconstructionof the road,whetherthis occurredin Flavian or (as here suggested) in pre-Flaviantimes.If we take into account the evident strategicunsuitabilityof the fort at Colwyn Castle as a terminalstrong-pointfor the thrustfrom the east, and the probabilitythat a road was constructedto connectit with the river-crossingat Penmincae, one might speculate that a plan had existed to drive a limes(a temporaryone, naturally)towardsLlandoveryand the Towy valley, so as to contain Silurianlandson the high plateau to its south. However, excavation at Penmincae and furtherexploration aroundBeulah (Caerau)are needed to settle the point. At present we may merely note that at Llandoveryan earlier deposit has been observed beneath the rampartof the known Flavian fort,13and that atBeulah Dr Grace Simpson is reportedas having identified a sherd of Dr. 11,14which should surelybe of pre-Flaviandate. However, today that sherd cannot be found. Dr P.V. Websterwrites that thelist as published reads like notes taken down when the pottery was passed in front of Dr Simpson,and he suggests that 'Dr. 11' was mistakenly printedfor 'Curle 11' when the notes were written up.The printed comment 'late first century or early second, south or central Gaulish' well suits thissolution.

Thus, if no pre-Flavian fort can be tracednearBeulah, either the suggested plan is a chimaera, orelse its full implementationwas perhapsinterruptedby the Boudiccan crisis of A.D. 60-61. Whetheror not this is so, the seemingly large garrison at Colwyn Castle was very likely to figure amongthe many auxiliary units recalled by Suetonius Paullinus for his campaign against the Iceni. Thefort will have been evacuated and perhaps that at Hindwell Farm as well. In these circumstancesre-occupation is unlikely to have been effected for ten or fifteen years, perhapsnot until the govern-orship of Frontinus (A.D.74-77). This probability strengthens our conviction that the samian Dr.15/17 was not an 'heirloom' still used and discarded in the Flavian period. An absence of garrisonfor over a decade is bound to be reflected in the archaeological record, in repairs to the defences,in replacement of buildings, and perhaps even in a burnt layer markingdemolition of the originalbuildings.The problem has yet to be addressed, but much of interest would be learnt from a programmeinvestigating the closer dating of forts in Wales and the Marches.

ADDENDUMSince this paper was written, Hugh Toller has shown me an aerial photographof what seems veryprobablyto be a Roman fort (and, if so, certainlypre-Flavian)at a river-crossingonly 2.5 km (c. 1?2miles) southof Beulah fort. If confirmed,this discovery will prove the pre-Flavianorigin of the roadsouth of Beulah and will greatly strengthenthe thesis proposed above.

12 For this site and some datable evidence, see St Joseph 1973, 240 with pl. xviii, 1.13 Informationkindly provided by Dr Jeffrey Davies.14 In Jones and Thomson 1958, 313. The sherd was found in a field just outside the fort.

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120 SHEPPARD REREACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the preparationof this paper I owe much gratitudefor advice and help to Dr Jeffrey Davies, as well as toDr P.V.Webster and to Geoffrey Dannell, who was my partnerin the excavation. This could not have beenundertakenwithout the supportof Dr Sian Rees, who arranged or its execution by IanHalfpenney,MonumentsWarden or CADW in Powys. Above all I must thankMr and Mrs George Barstow,owners of the site, for theirinterest and hospitality.Netherfield House, Marcham

BIBLIOGRAPHYArnold, C.J., and Davies, J.L. 2000: Roman and Early Medieval Wales,StroudDavies, J.L. 1999: 'The historical and archaeological background to the Hindwell Roman complex', inGibson 1999, 68-70Davies, J.L., and Spurgeon, C.J. 1975: Archaeology in Wales 15, 67, no. 88Frere, S.S. 1983; 'Roman Britain in 1982: I. Sites explored', Britannia 14, 280-335Frere, S.S. 1987: 'Brandon Camp, Herefordshire',Britannia 18, 49-92Gibson, A. 1999: The WaltonBasin, Wales,WelshpoolHogg, A.H.A., and King, D.J.C. 1963: 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches', Archaeologia Cambrensis112, 77-124Jones, G.D.B., and Thomson, R.D. 1958: 'The Roman fort at Caerau',Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies17, 309-15Manning, W. 2001: Roman Wales,CardiffMusson, C.R., and Bennison, B. 1982: Archaeology in Wales22, 29, no. 37Spurgeon, C.J. 1974: Archaeology in Wales14, 20-1, no. 40St Joseph, J.K. 1973: 'Air reconnaissance in Britain 1969-72', Journal of Roman Studies 53, 214-46