Binchester Roman Fort 🏯
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
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This is an amazing place, most of which is still underground.
Binchester Roman Fort was founded around 79 AD to guard the crossing of the River Wear by Dere Street, the main road connecting York to Hadrian’s Wall and Scotland. It was the largest Roman fort in County Durham, and evidence points to its construction in parallel with Agricola’s march northward into the Brigantes’ territory.Binchester’s vast size meant that it could host a considerable military force and was an important staging post for the Roman military in the region. Evidence found at the site shows that the fort held cavalry units, with inscriptions showing them to be multicultural in nature - one such hailed from central Spain and another from what is now Holland.Binchester Roman Fort remained in use throughout the Roman period and a large civilian settlement grew up around it, with locals continuing to occupy it several centuries after the Roman forces departed. The modern-day village of Binchester is about 2 miles to the east of the site.
Today Binchester Roman Fort site is open to visitors who can explore its atmospheric remains, including two well-preserved bath houses. The first lies within the fort complex and holds one of the best preserved hypocausts - or underfloor heating systems - in Britain, while the second lies outside the fort complex, and contains walls still standing 6ft tall!Sections of the Roman Dere Road may also be viewed, while excavations of the site are also ongoing to uncover more of its fascinating story. There are information boards around the site, while guests may also take guided tours, helping to fully envision what was once a thriving Roman military base.
For a time one of the largest Roman military installations in the whole of Northern Britain. About 7 hectares in size it was large enough to have accommodated a battle-group formed of several cohorts of legionary infantry and one or more units of auxiliary cavalry. Even when it was reduced to 4 hectares around 160 AD it was still the largest fort in County Durham.
An extensive civilian settlement (vicus) existed to the north and west of the fort, the remains of which are buried under the pastures of Binchester Hall Farm. The southern part of the fort is now beneath Binchester Hall, while some of the defences were destroyed in a landslip in the 19th century. Part of the stone bridge used by Dere Street to cross the River Wear can still be seen when the river is low. In 2007, several mausolea were found to the north of the vicus.
Its pretty incredible how these places have lasted for so long, almost 2000 years, totally amazing!
Music courtesy of Alexander Nakarada (Creatorchords.com)
Morning Ray this was great, so interesting to see and read about and you always capture these places so well. That place seemed so big and your said most is stull underground too. You also said it was the largest in County Durham and in the whole of Northern Britain . So good that they are still excavating here, seeing those bathhouses and the underfloor heating systems must be fascinating. You showed so much on this video Ray, sooo interesting 👏👍~ Anna
Hi Anna 😃👋 thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed this video. It is a fascinating place, those Romans were certainly clever people. Most of the site is under a farmers property but as you saw from the ground survey it is an absolutely huge site, it must have been so busy in its day. I’ll no doubt be going back once more has been uncovered to see what they find 😃
Thank you for popping in it’s always appreciated and nice to see you here, I hope you and Alf are both keeping well 🙏🏻🤗👍🏻
Greetings from Canada Ray. 🍁What an incredible place. I’m so disappointed I missed seeing it while I was there. Right there, and staying in County Durham no less. No google etc in ‘88 lol. I do know for a fact that I saw more of England on my 1 month stay there than any of my relatives did in their entire lives of living there. So glad that I split my time up between visiting relatives and touring. The fort itself covers such a large area, but I was surprised at the size of the building complex that housed the exercise hall and baths. Roman ingenuity at its best. Like them or not, you can’t deny their contributions in architecture and engineering, among other things. I mean heated flooring, come on. lol. That alone would have been a treat. Great to see the outside baths and to have a look at the hand carved stone. Were you able to see the actual adult and child footprints? 👣 It’s the little things like this that I find the most moving. Brings everything into focus. Ty Ray. I really enjoyed this one. Beautiful drone footage at the end. Take care and bye for now. Hoping for sunshine for you and Alf. Here too. It’s been nothing but rain. 🇨🇦🇬🇧👋🤗🌞😎🐈⬛
Hiya Jill 😀👋🤗 it’s a shame you didn’t get to visit this place during your visit, it’s a fascinating place. The guy on reception gave me a 15 minute talk before I started my walk which gave me a good insight which I found helpful. I think it’s great that they built around it to show exactly how it would have been used. That underfloor heating and ducted air was very clever. I did see the footprints but didn’t film them as I didn’t think they would come out well in the light but totally amazing. When I asked about them I was told they were probably running due to the deeper indentations of the toes and heel, probably getting chased by the guy who just laid the concrete 🤣🤣 I will revisit in future to see what has been updated and uncovered, I will definitely film them then. Thank you as always for taking time to watch and comment 🤗 Wishing you a great week ahead. Be safe and take care 🙏🏻🤗🤗❤️🇨🇦🇬🇧
History facilities me Ray. I didn't know about this one. Fantastic footage of the place. I have a few in waiting ✋️ Great trip out. ❤
Hi Yvonne, we have lots of hidden gems don’t we and of course our history is amazing, glad you enjoyed this👍🏻🤗❤️
Thanks for the video, I have been there many times and the excavations are still ongoing. There is a Time Team video on RUclips about the site and the much greater expanse of the site that is well worth watching. Not too far from there is the oldest Anglo-Saxon church still standing in England and you can see that many of the stones used to build the church were taken from the Roman fort. There are Roman inscriptions visible on the stone walls of the church. County Durham is a great place to explore and there are not many tourists who bother to go that far north. I was born only a few miles from Binchester. Cheers from New Zealand.
Cheers John, it is a very interesting place and yes the church does have stone from this area. I’ve not visited the church yet but I will at some point if it ever stops raining 🤣
My best wishes to you and New Zealand 👍🏻🇳🇿🇬🇧
Very neat!
Thank you Liam 😊👍🏻
This place i well worth a visit plus there is other sites you can go visit too
Thank you Ann, yes definitely loads of sites… those Romans were busy people 😄👍🏻