More digging at Calstock's Roman Fort

It was January 12 months ago that the discovery of a Roman Fort in our parish came to light and I blogged about it here. With the backing of 'English Heritage' the archaeologists returned last month and the dig is continuing through much of February - I believe the present phase on site is for a period of seven weeks in total. They have been busy in a field adjoining the cemetery and I believe it is the intention to use this land for burials as well. Last Saturday turned out to be a respectably dry day thank goodness because it was advertised as an open day for all and sundry to see what has been going on.

The great find this year - fanfare please - was a Roman Road leading toward the west gate of the encampment. So, we now have evidence of a road leading westward on the ridge, but for how far: that is the question. There are two other Roman forts further west in Cornwall (well two known so far to be more precise) so would 'our' road have connected up with them? A friend yesterday made an interesting observation pointing out that the present motorised road doesn't actually lie on top of its Roman predecessor but there is not much more than a hedge width separating them. This surprised him. The site of the fort encompasses Calstock Parish Church so does that mean the Church was sited on a former Roman place of worship? In Cornwall we have many instances of churches being located some distance from the main body of a village and Calstock is one such. Prior to the finding of the fort my feeling was that the siting of the Church was just another example of the peculiar Cornish practice. Raymond, who had written a very thorough guide to the church, had postulated that the closeness of some wells might have been the reason for the siting and I wouldn't have argued with that. Mentioning the Church reminds me that it was open on Saturday with a small exhibition relating what we know so far regarding this bit of Roman occupation. There was also a hands on display of various 'finds', not from this site but from elsewhere, so that folk could get a sense of what all this archaeological business is about. I'm not sure but I think that it was Exeter Museum who provided these flints and other small artifacts. Two chaps dressed as Roman soldiers and at the Church porch added to the atmosphere. They had set up a 'groma', a Roman surveying instrument about which there are plenty of references on line, one of which can be found here.

All in all very interesting. I've arranged for the experts to give our local history group a talk on the story so far at our April meeting (last Saturday of that month). I'm really looking forward to it.

Calstock's Roman Fort and Rubber Band

A few days ago, last Tuesday to be exact, saw us have a very interesting and enjoyable evening at two vastly different events. First up at 7 o'clock was the annual meeting of Calstock Parish Council where one gets the opportunity to hear a review of what that council has done and hopes to do. I have to own up and say that this hasn't always been a port of call for me but what really enticed us to go was the inclusion of a talk in the proceedings. It was the end of last January that saw me write a piece on the discovery of a Roman fort near the Parish Church (in fact I believe I was the first person to put that information into the public domain) and the aforementioned talk was on the subject of the fort and given by historian Peter Claughton and archaeologist Chris Smart. So far it is very much a case of 'work in progress': we should know a lot more when they come back to Calstock at the end of May. The Parish Council found that they had a bit of surplus money and, I'm very pleased to say, have made a donation to our friends from Exeter University for the furtherance of their work. We were very pleased about this and hope there is plenty more to discover about the Roman occupation at Calstock.

This meeting was held at Albaston. It was only a few minutes drive from there down into Calstock itself and the Tamar Inn to enjoy the enthusiastic playing of 'The Rubber Band'. When they play at Calstock and Gunnislake each month one can never be sure who is able to come and their last pub gig was very much down on numbers but still enjoyable. This time though they were well into double figures and on top form.

In my earlier piece today I had hinted about trying not to get be too narrow in ones interests. On this particular evening we had gone from a Roman Fort to traditional Cornish music which I think is quite a contrast!

Roman fort discovered at Calstock

Last Saturday evening I received word about the amazing discovery of a Roman fort just west of the Tamar at Calstock! Peter Claughton from Exeter University has been researching the story of the lead and silver mining on the Bere Peninsula for some time; he had been aware from the records of some sort of silver smelting operation in the vicinity of Calstock Church just across the Tamar from these particular mining lodes. Geophysical surveying was revealing an interesting anomaly in a field just south of the church and now an archaeological dig is in process. Apart from some evidence of smelting the big prize has been these totally unknown Roman remains.

I was in the area anyway today so made a point of visiting the site and was pleased to receive a "conducted tour". Just in time too as the excavation has to be backfilled by the end of the week.