Slack Roman Fort was a castellum near

Outlane Outlane is a village in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, situated approximately south-west of Elland, north-west of Huddersfield and south of Halifax. The village is situated next to the M62 motorway near Junction 23 and straddles the K ...

, to the west of

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. Its site is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. The ruins of the fort which lay alongside the Pennine section of the Roman road from

Deva Victrix Deva Victrix, or simply Deva, was a legionary fortress and town in the Roman province of Britannia on the site of the modern city of Chester. The fortress was built by the Legio II ''Adiutrix'' in the 70s AD as the Roman army advanced north ag ...

( Chester) 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 ...

) are no longer visible. The fort may have been the Cambodunum mentioned as a station on this route in the Antonine Itinerary.

Archaeological dig In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

s indicate the fort was constructed of turf and wood to defend 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 ...

road in the time of

Agricola Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to: People Cognomen or given name :''In chronological order'' * Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85) * Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the mi ...

in AD 79. Outside the fort walls was a stone bath-house which was extended around AD 104 and AD 120. A

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

or small settlement of wooden huts grew outside the fort. In December 2016, a retired professor from Bangor University, Peter Field, hypothesised that the fort's site was a potential location for the mythical

Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as th ...

Location

The site of the fort is on gently sloping ground sheltered by a hill rising to above sea level about from Huddersfield, mostly to the south of the present-day

M62 motorway The M62 is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield; of the route is shared with the M60 orbital motorway around Manchester. The road is part of th ...

. Observation posts on the surrounding hills commanded views towards

Blackstone Edge Blackstone Edge ( ) is a gritstone escarpment at 472 m (1,549 feet) above sea level in the Pennine hills surrounded by moorland on the boundary between Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire in England. History Crossing the escarpment is Bl ...

, Standedge, Huddersfield and the Stainland Valley in the Halifax direction.

Excavations

The Huddersfield Archaeological and Topographical Society, whose secretary was George Lloyd, excavated the site in 1865. It excavated the remains of a residence measuring by with a courtyard. Nearby was a cremation site and on the slope below the house are the remains of a

hypocaust A hypocaust ( la, hypocaustum) is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm th ...

for the hot air bath. Also found nearby were a British stone axe, pottery, part of a brooch and a quantity of galena, (lead ore). On another part of the site are the remains of a cold bath comprised a slab of concrete long by wide. The room it was in had a red tiled floor. Copper or bronze coins from the reigns of

Vespasian Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...

and Nerva, an earthenware jar and a tile stamped "COH IIII BRE" were also uncovered. Excavations between 1913 and 1915 and 1958 to 1963 uncovered the fort's ramparts and the foundations of its gateways and corner towers. The ramparts, constructed of turves on a stone footing, surrounded an area 356 feet (111 metres) square. They were surrounded by a ditch, in some parts a double ditch when the fort was built in about AD 79. Inside are the outlines of several wooden buildings including the military headquarters and barrack blocks. Another phase of development about 20 years later added two granaries roofed with tiles stamped COHIIIIBRE, the mark of the 4th cohort of Breuci who operated a tilery in the nearby Grimescar Valley. A phase of building in stone began in the early AD 120s. but by then the garrison had been reduced. The fort was occupied until about AD 140. Outside the fort to the east was the bath-house and to the north was a small civilian settlement which may have continued until AD 200. The

Tolson Museum The Tolson Memorial Museum, also known as Tolson Museum, is housed in Ravensknowle Hall, a Victorian mansion in Ravensknowle Park on Wakefield Road in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. The museum was given to the town by Legh Tolson in m ...

in Huddersfield has a collection of artefacts including the reconstructed Grade II

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

remains of the

, comprising the rubble columns and tiled floor, that were moved to Ravensknowle Park from the fort.

References

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External links

Reconstructed images of the fort
Roman fortifications in England History of Yorkshire Scheduled monuments in West Yorkshire Roman auxiliary forts in England