Lavatrae , also known as Lavatris, was a Roman fort in the modern-day village of

Bowes Bowes is a village in County Durham, England. Located in the Pennine hills, it is situated close to Barnard Castle. It is built around the medieval Bowes Castle. Geography and administration Civic history Bowes lies within the historic coun ...

, County Durham, England.

Roman period

The Romans built a fort with wooden ramparts at Lavatrae in the early AD 70s, after an invasion of the region by Governor Petilius Cerealis. It was intended as a waypoint on the northern leg of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

equivalent of

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main ...

in the section connecting

Luguvalium Luguvalium was a Roman town in northern Britain in antiquity. It was located within present-day Carlisle, Cumbria, and may have been the capital of the 4th-century province of Valentia. Name The Romans called the settlement at what is today ...

( Carlisle) to

Eboracum Eboracum () was a fort and later a city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britain and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Western Roman Empire and ultimat ...

(

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

) and points south. It guarded the eastern entrance to the

Stainmore Stainmore is a remote geographic area in the Pennines on the border of Cumbria, County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name is used for a civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England, including the villages of North Stainmore and South ...

Pass through the Pennines, overlooking the River Greta. The name "Lavatrae" meant "summit". Stone walls were built around the site in the 130s, and an external settlement called a ''vicus'' was constructed to the north of the fort, with a bathhouse to the south-east. The bathhouse was , tiled and appears to have been destroyed in a fire, and then rebuilt. The fort and the ''vicus'' were occupied until at least the late 4th century.

Post-Roman period

The bathhouse was excavated in the 19th century. Minor archaeological investigations were undertaken in 1923, while the Office of Works was carrying out repairs on the medieval castle, with more deliberate investigations of the Roman fort being carried out in 1954, 1966–67, 1970, 1988, 1990 and 2009. Cambridge Museum of Archaeology has a stone altar from the bathhouse, erected by the 1st Cohort of the Thracians. Only earthworks and the parts of the stone walls of the bathhouse survive in the 21st century.

References

Bibliography

* {{Ancient Rome topics Roman sites in County Durham Roman fortifications in England