Listing
Search the List

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance

Apply for Listing

Missing Pieces Project

Blue Plaque Scheme
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

Terracotta tiles on the roof of Saintoft Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe, Ryedale, North Yorkshire. Grade II listed © Historic England Archive DP371715
Advice
Climate Change

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

A contractor cutting bricks for the wall of the partially-restored wild and natural walled garden at Warley Place, Brentwood. Explore our technical advice section © Historic England Archive DP313199
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Governance

Latest Research

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Archaeologist Dr David Neal discussing his illustration of the mosaic being excavated at Rutland Roman Villa with members of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services team View image DP264265 © Historic England
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

Children play with a doll and a pram on the cobbled Church Path in Queen Camel, Somerset, in April 1953. At the far end of the path is the tower of the Church of St Barnabas, which dates to the 14th century. Photographer: John Gay Image reference: AA091596 © Historic England Archive
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones

Levelling Up Places Service
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

Heritage Apprentices in a training session on the Researching The Historic Environment module and training in Architectural Photography. Find out more about Heritage Apprenticeships © Historic England Archive DP347660
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Two horsemen reading The Sportsman, 30 Oct 1902, Farnborough, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. Part of the Alfred Newton and Sons collection. Source Historic England Archive. BB98/02592
About Us
What We Do

Who We Are

How We Are Funded

Contact Us

Careers

Volunteer with Historic England
About Us

Historic England is the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment.

Find out more

Mountbatten House (formerly Gateway House), Basing View, Basingstoke, the former headquarters for the paper merchants Wiggins Teape by Arup Associates. Listed at Grade II. © Historic England
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

Roman camp and signal station 600m south-east of Wreay Hall

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1007871
Date first listed:: 08-Oct-1981

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1007871
Date first listed:: 08-Oct-1981
Date of most recent amendment:: 19-May-1994

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Westmorland and Furness (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Hesket
National Grid Reference:: NY 44838 48282

Reasons for Designation

Roman camps are rectangular or sub-rectangular enclosures which were constructed and used by Roman soldiers either when out on campaign or as practice camps; most campaign camps were only temporary overnight bases and few were used for longer periods. They were bounded by a single earthen rampart and outer ditch and in plan are always straight-sided with rounded corners. Normally they have between one and four entrances, although as many as eleven have been recorded. Such entrances were usually centrally placed in the sides of the camp and were often protected by additional defensive outworks. Roman camps are found throughout much of England, although most known examples lie in the midlands and north. Around 140 examples have been identified and, as one of the various types of defensive enclosure built by the Roman Army, particularly in hostile upland and frontier areas, they provide an important insight into Roman military strategy and organisation. All well-preserved examples are identified as being of national importance.

A Roman signal station is a rectangular tower of stone or wood situated within some form of enclosure, and was used for observation and to signal information back to neighbouring camps or forts; fire or smoke was used to provide signals. They were initially dated on the basis of finds, particularly pottery, and by analogy with other dated military works nearby or having a direct stratigraphic association with them. It thus became clear that there were three distinct phases of building; the earliest examples were timber built and date to between AD 50-60. These were being replaced in stone along with new stone-built signal stations by the Hadrianic period AD 117-138. The last group were constructed in the late fourth century AD. All that remains of timber features is a series of postholes, although the evidence suggests that the towers could have been substantial structures up to 6.6m high. However, in the case of masonry towers, substantial foundations may be recovered. The enclosure round the tower could take various forms and was usually marked out by a ditch. Most of the timber examples were further protected by a turf rampart inside the ditch. On analogy with examples outside England it has been suggested that many timber and early stone examples are likely to have been surrounded by a palisade. On the Yorkshire coast late fourth century examples are surrounded by a massive curtain wall. The distribution of signal stations in England lies largely in the north but examples are known or postulated in the Midlands, London, Cornwall and Kent. The exact form of the signal station changed over time but some specific types have been identified with known military campaigns. Thus most Hadrianic signal stations were built in stone; these are concentrated in the north of England, the focus of military campaigning at this time. Most late examples are found on the east coast, possibly located there in response to perceived threats of coastal invasion. This site is a rare example of a juxtaposed camp and signal station. The camp is one of many lying adjacent to the main Roman road connecting the Vale of York and Carlisle. It will contribute to any study of Roman military campaigning in northern England. Limited excavation of the signal station found late fourth century pottery indicating that the site is a rare example in Cumbria, other than Hadrian's Wall, of a military installation constructed during the campaigns of Theodosius.

Details

The monument includes a Roman camp and signal station located on a hilltop 600m south-east of Wreay Hall and 600m west of the main Roman road which linked the Roman forts at Old Penrith (known to the Romans as Voreda), and Carlisle (known to the Romans as Luguvallium). It is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs which clearly show some infilled ditches of the camp and the infilled ditches of the signal station. An aerial photograph shows the whole of the south-west and north-west sides of the Roman camp and part of the north-east side. On the basis of this information the size and shape of the whole camp can be reconstructed. The dimensions of the camp are approximately 55m square with rounded corners. Overlying the camp, and therefore of later date, aerial photographs show a Roman signal station revealed as a ditched enclosure c.17m square with rounded corners separated by a 6m wide strip from an outer circular ditch c.41m in diameter. Limited excavation of the signal station in 1951 confirmed the existence of the ditches as seen on the aerial photograph and found Roman pottery dating to the latter half of the fourth century AD. This pottery indicates that the signal station functioned after the 'Barbarian Conspiracy' of the AD 360's referred to in classical sources, when Picts, Saxons, Scots and Attacotti overran much of northern England, and was thus constructed during the late 360's by Theodosius, a Roman general specially dispatched to Britain to stabilise the situation. A post and wire fence crossing the monument is excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath the fence is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 5 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 23669
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Higham, N, The Northern Counties to AD 1000, (1986), 237
Marcellinus, A, Historia, (1935)
Bellhouse, R L, 'Trans Cumb and West Antiq and Arch Soc. New Ser.' in A Roman Post at Wreay Hall, Near Carlisle, , Vol. LIII, (1953), 49-51
St Joseph, J K, 'Journal of Roman Studies' in Air Reconnaissance in Britain, 1958-60, , Vol. 51, (1961), 120-1
St Joseph, J K, 'Journal of Roman Studies' in Air Reconnaissance of North Britain, , Vol. 51, (1951), 120-1
Other
AP No XG76, Cambridge University Collection,
Petteril Green Roman Camp, (1984)
SMR No. 715, Cumbria SMR, Roman Signal Station SE of Wreay Hall, (1987)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.