Map showing the location of Derventio within Derbyshire. | |
Location | Derby, Derbyshire |
---|---|
Region | East Midlands |
Coordinates | 52°56′01″N1°28′25″W / 52.933735°N 1.473586°W |
Type | Roman fort |
Part of | Icknield Street |
History | |
Founded | about AD 80 |
Abandoned | about AD 120 (but settlement continued) |
Site notes | |
Website | Derventio (Coritanorum) at Roman Britain |
PastScape |
Derventio was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today the area is known as Little Chester, on the outskirts of Derby, located in the English county of Derbyshire. [1]
The first castra in the area was built on the opposite bank of the River Derwent at Strutts Park. It was replaced about AD 80 by a fort on the present site, but this only lasted about forty years, then was decommissioned. There was extensive Roman activity prompted by the fort, which was connected westward by a road to the Icknield Street, and to the east by a road to Sawley on the River Trent. A fort-vicus which manufactured pottery and worked iron was founded 600m to the east on the Sawley Road. The fort was later re-occupied and re-used for a further twenty five years. The defensive bank and timber palisade were now remodelled and stone gates built. Then it lay unoccupied until the late 3rd century when a stone wall was built around the town. [2] It did not outlive the end of the 4th century.
The modern Old Chester Road bisects the site of the fort, and in the nineteenth century the south east corner was cut by a line of the Great Northern Railway.
It is not known which tribal group occupied the area of Derby, though the Corieltauvi and Cornovii are the most likely. In AD 46-47 the Roman Army under the direction of governor Aulius Plautius had probably occupied the lands to the south of the River Trent, so in AD 50 this was the front line. There is a shortage of written documentation about these years so reliance is made on archaeological excavations. Late in 47 the new governor of Britain, Ostorius Scapula, began a campaign against the tribes of modern-day Wales, and the Cheshire Gap. During these times Strutt's Park Roman fort was one of the new forts built along the new supply road from Wroxeter to Rossington.
The campaign to conquer the Silures continued under the governor Quintus Veranius and his successor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus but by now Strutt’s Park's rôle was to maintain the peace. Around AD 74, the lands north of the River Mersey became unstable, when Queen Cartimandus had to ask for Roman assistance to fight off a rebellion. Then in AD78, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, made famous through the highly laudatory biography of him written by his son-in-law, Tacitus, was made governor. He consolidated the forts, improved the road infrastructure and led some now well documented campaigns- firstly in AD78, he reconquered North Wales, then in AD79 he conquered the Brigantes and Parisii taking all of Northern England up to the present Scottish border. Strutt's Park fort was vacated in AD 80 when Derventio was built.
Derventio was occupied for 40 years until around 120AD. To put this in context, the Emperor Hadrian visited Britannia in AD120 and ordered his wall to be built. Though Britannia always had a large garrison, focus now changed to industrial production. Derby produced pottery and had access to the lead mining to the north in the Peak District, later it became a centre for metalworking. This continued for the next 200 years.
Icknield Street or Ryknild Street is a Roman road in England, with a route roughly south-west to north-east. It runs from the Fosse Way at Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire to Templeborough in South Yorkshire. It passes through Alcester, Studley, Redditch, Metchley Fort, Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield, Lichfield, Burton upon Trent and Derby.
Duffield is a village in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Derby. It is centred on the western bank of the River Derwent at the mouth of the River Ecclesbourne. It is within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Area and the southern foothills of the Pennines.
Inchtuthil is the site of a Roman legionary fortress situated on a natural platform overlooking the north bank of the River Tay southwest of Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
The history of Derbyshire can be traced back to human settlement since the last Ice Age, over 10,000 years ago. The county of Derbyshire in England dates back to the 11th century.
Birdoswald Roman Fort was known as Banna in Roman times, reflecting the geography of the site on a triangular spur of land bounded by cliffs to the south and east commanding a broad meander of the River Irthing in Cumbria below.
Little Chester, also known as Chester Green after the area of open parkland at its centre, is a suburb of the city of Derby, in Derbyshire, England. It is located approximately 0.6 miles (0.97 km) north of the city centre, on the east bank of the River Derwent. It forms part of the Darley ward along with Darley Abbey and the West End. Little Chester is the oldest inhabited part of Derby, having been the location of a fortified Roman settlement called Derventio.
Aquae Arnemetiae was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. The settlement was based around its natural warm springs. The Roman occupation ran from around 75 AD to 410 AD. Today it is the town of Buxton, Derbyshire in England.
Draycott and Church Wilne is a civil parish within the Borough of Erewash, which is in the county of Derbyshire, England. Partially built up and otherwise rural, its population was 3,090 residents in the 2011 census. The parish is 100 miles (160 km) north west of London, 5+1⁄2 miles (8.9 km) south east of the county city of Derby, and 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the nearest market town of Long Eaton. It shares a boundary with the parishes of Breaston, Elvaston, Hopwell, Ockbrook and Borrowash, Risley and Shardlow and Great Wilne.
Luguvalium was an ancient Roman city in northern Britain located within present-day Carlisle, Cumbria, and may have been the capital of the 4th-century province of Valentia. It was the northernmost city of the Roman Empire.
Durovernum Cantiacorum was a town and hillfort in Roman Britain at the site of present-day Canterbury in Kent. It occupied a strategic location on Watling Street at the best local crossing of the Stour, which prompted a convergence of roads connected to the ports of Dubris (Dover), Rutupiae (Richborough), Regulbium (Reculver) and Portus Lemanis (Lympne). Considerable archaeological evidence of Roman activity has been found in Canterbury, much of which can now be found in the Roman Museum built on the remains of a Roman townhouse.
Ratae Corieltauvorum or simply Ratae was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Leicester, located in the English county of Leicestershire.
Coria was a fort and town 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Hadrian's Wall, in the Roman province of Britannia. It was strategically located on the junction of a major Roman north–south road with the River Tyne and the Roman Stanegate road, which was also the first frontier line which ran east–west between Coria and Luguvalium. Corbridge Roman Site is in the village of Corbridge in the county of Northumberland.
Strutt's Park Roman Fort was a Roman fort in Strutt's Park, a suburb of Derby in Derbyshire, England. It was built around the year 50 and replaced, probably between the years 75 and 80, by a new fort at Little Chester on the opposite bank of the River Derwent.
The Derby Racecourse Roman settlement was the third settlement in Derby or Derventio which was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. It lies 600m east of Derventio fort in Little Chester, on the outskirts of Derby, in the English county of Derbyshire. The Roman road from Derventio to Sawley on the River Trent passes the settlement. It is a scheduled National Monument.
The Street is the medieval name of the Roman road that ran across the high limestone plateau of central Derbyshire from the spa town of Buxton southeast towards modern Derby. The line of the road can be traced from surviving features, confirmed by archaeology, from Buxton as far as Longcliffe just north of Brassington. It is believed that from Brassington the road ran eastwards to Wirksworth and there joined another road which crossed the Derwent at Milford and ran on the east bank of the Derwent and can be traced to the northern suburbs of Derby to Little Chester, the site of the Roman settlement of Derventio. The 1723 map of Brassington Moor shows The Street road from Buxton through Pikehall up to the Upper Harborough Field Gate, leading onto Manystones Lane & Brassington Lane towards Wirksworth. In records from 1613 the road from Brassington to Wirksworth is called 'Highe Streete'.
The Long Lane is the medieval and modern name of the Roman road that ran almost due westwards from Derventio, the Roman fort and vicus in the suburbs of modern Derby, through Derbyshire to Rocester and Draycott in the Moors. From that point onwards the same road – no longer called "The Long Lane" – continued through Staffordshire to Chesterton near Newcastle-under-Lyme. Its destination was Middlewich, from which the important city of Chester was in easy reach.
Rykeneld Street or Ryknield Street was a Roman road which ran through the northern Midlands of England from Deva (Chester) to Derventio (Derby) via what is now Stoke-on-Trent. It is not to be confused with the Icknield Street. It has in the past also been called by Victorian antiquarians the "Via Devina". The territory traversed would have been that of the Cornovii.
Derventio was a Roman settlement at Papcastle on the river Derwent near Cockermouth, Cumbria, England. It was the site of a Roman fort, which was originally built in timber and rebuilt in stone. There was also a civilian settlement (vicus). It is sometimes called Derventio Carvetiorum by modern writers to distinguish it from other places named Derventio, but there is no evidence of that extended name being used in the Roman period.
Derventio, sometimes described as Derventio Brigantium in order to distinguish it from other places called Derventio, was a Roman fort and settlement located beneath the modern town of Malton in North Yorkshire, England. The fort is positioned 18 miles north-east of Eboracum on the River Derwent.
Lutudarum was a town in the Roman province of Britannia, in the area that is now mid-Derbyshire. The settlement was believed to have been at either Wirksworth or nearby Carsington. However, Barnatt and Smith in their most recent assessment, determined that Carsington was not proven as Lutudarum, although Matlock and Cromford might be other candidates. Matlock was dismissed by its own historian Nailor in his excellent history of the Matlocks and Dennis had considered that Cromford might represent a river wharf on the Derwent but would not be Lutudarum. This leaves only Wirksworth as the likely location. The town was recorded as Lutudaron between Derventio and Veratino (Rocester) in the Ravenna Cosmography's list of all known places in the world in about 700 AD.