NANSTALLON
Bodmin, Cornwall, England.
A 1st c. fort of 0.8 ha, on an interfluvial spur at a height
of 60 m on the left bank of the river Camel, SW of
Bodmin. The defenses of three sides of the fort are incorporated in the present field banks, and the fourth side
was leveled in the 19th c. Excavation, limited to the E
half of the fort, has shown it was defended by a turf
rampart and ditch, timber angle-towers and gates, and
had the customary road system. The timber-framed gates
were without towers, but had dual carriageways bridged
by a superstructure carrying the rampart walk, as at the
Lunt and Brough-on-Humber forts.
All buildings were of timber; the principia, the commander's house (praetorium), and a fenced enclosure
containing a latrine, faced on the via principalis. Barrack blocks had seven double cubicles for the men and
four or five rooms for officers, indicating a cavalry detachment. There were only small buildings between the
barracks and the rampart, some workshops, a smithy,
and stables, probably because the fort was intended for
a larger garrison. The fort was built during the reign of
Nero, probably after A.D. 60, and was abandoned ca. A.D.
80 at the time of Agricola's campaigns. The finds are at
the Royal Institution of Cornwall Museum, Truro.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Fox & W. Ravenhill, “The Roman
fort at Nanstallon, Cornwall: excavations 1965-1969,”
Britannia 3 (1972) 56-111; Fox, “New light on the military occupation of South West England,”
Congress of
Roman Frontier Studies, ed. E. Birley (1974).
A. FOX
