Corbridge Roman Fort and Town

The first Roman fort at Corbridge was built about a km to the west of the standing remains. It
was built as a supply base for the Roman advance into Scotland in about AD80. Five years after
the fort was abandoned, the first of a series of forts was built on this site. The earliest forts at
Corbridge were built largely of timber. It was not until the middle of the second century, when
the last fort was built that extensive use was made of stone.

Towards the end of the second century Corbridge’s role as a regular military fort came to an end.
While the core of the site remained in the hands of the military, the surrounding area developed
as a town. Many of the buildings of the town are buried beneath the surrounding fields. The
remains which you can still see today are only a small part of the central area.

The size of Corbridge and its location indicate that it was an impotant town, a centre for both the
military and civilian administration of the region. It would have provided a market for local and
regional produce and opportunities for traders and merchants

Finds from the excavations suggest the presence of leatherworkers, potters and smiths. Travellers
probably used Corbridge as a staging post on the main route north, giving them an opportunity to
change or refresh their horses.
Shops and houses lined the roads leading in from east to west. The heart of the town was the
main street.

What you can see nowadays of the rise and fall of some of the walls was caused by their gradual
subsidence into the ditches of an earlier fort.

When the earliest fort was destroyed in AD105, the useful contents of an armourer's workshop
were hurriedly thrown into a wooden chest and buried to keep them out of enemy hands.The
chest was never reclaimed from its hiding place. It contained, along with other items, portions of
a breastplate from a legionary soldiers uniform.
This hoard of materials was found in excavations in 1964 - it contains assorted items, the greatest
part of them iron, tools and weapons, traces of wooden objects, fabrics, bone and glass and some
objects of bronze and lead .
At the beginning of the fifth century AD, Roman control of Britain came to an end. How long
after this the Roman town remained occupied is not known. Some Anglo Saxon objects were
found which might suggest some occupation at that time, but the medieval and modern town
developed on a different site further east.

photos by Corinne Mills and Mark Martin