ABSTRACT
D. Rybot, F.S.A., to be noted in connexion with the defences was that of an internal turret on the wall rather more than half-way between the gate and the south-west corner (7: Plate 11) . The turret is small, 1 1 (N-S) by 10 (E-W ) feet externally. Its side walls stood to a height of 3 feet; its inner wall had been neatly removed, probably at quite a late date, in mediaeval or postmediaeval times. To the underside of the cellar floor its interior had been
filled with a clean yellow-brown brickearth resembling that of the bank behind the wall. This material had the appearance of having been deli berately inserted. It suggested that the ground-floor level was not intended for use. The discovery of this turret made a more general contribution to the plan
of the fort, but raises a minor problem of planning to which the fragmentary internal turret on the north wall (la : p. 27) perhaps makes a contribution. Since the actual position of the north gate has not been established it is im possible to think in precise terms, but the indications are that the north turret may be half-way between the centre-line of the north gate and the north western angle. This measurement corresponds quite closely with that between the west gateway and the turret in the forward part of the fort (praetentura) to the south of it, so that for the shorter sectors of the defences this may have been the unit that was adopted in siting one turret in each length of wall. In the longer rear part of the fort, made up of the central administrative division and the retentura to the north of it, some different system must have been followed. It would be possible to accommodate two turrets there; but it so happens that along the west wall those areas in which the turrets should have appeared have survived in a relatively undisturbed condition (the northern part of Windsor Court (3) and the Barber Surgeons’ Hall (2)) and there was no sign of them. The provision of internal turrets in Roman forts varies very much from one fort to the next and uniformity is not to be assumed. It seems likely that at Cripplegate only a single turret was allocated to the longer sectors of wall as to the shorter ones. I f this had been set about half-way between gate and corner it would have been in an area of deeper cellars and would not have survived. The search for internal buildings and above all for datable evidence which
might shed light on the history of the fort in its later periods, has not been very fruitful. The new London Wall (Route 1 1) crosses obliquely the area of the headquarters building (principia) which, as already stated, would have straddled Wood Street on the north side of the Silver Street-Addle Street frontage (19). Clearance for the new road presented an opportunity for the exploration of the ground along its line and it was hoped that since the buildings of the central block at least would be likely to be constructed in stone, some part of their foundations might survive below the destruction level of the cellar floors. This hope again was frustrated: the only remaining
antiquities were the lower parts of mediaeval rubbish-pits, one or more Roman pits and a few post-holes. So, too, on the east side, but still in the central block, the site of the Brewers’ Hall (15), though ostensibly preserved to street-level, produced a complicated series of mediaeval and postmediaeval pits and cellars which were of interest in themselves but had penetrated to levels which involved the complete destruction of all Roman features apart from one or two scraps of possibly Roman masonry. In Windsor Court also post-Roman destruction had removed most of the
Roman deposits; but here at least were the bases of Roman foundations belonging to a long narrow building running with the intervallum road of which traces were found further south, nearer the gateway (Fig. 3). The hope of evidence bearing on the fort’s later history therefore steadily recedes and there are few if any places now which can be said to be even potentially valuable in this respect. Another area within the fort lay on the south side of Silver Street (20) and
was therefore in thzpraetentura. The cellars were comparatively shallow and about 4 feet of deposit had survived beneath the modern floor; but there had also been much downward disturbance and the effective depth available over the parts of the site that could be examined was usually 2 feet or sometimes less. As elsewhere (above, p. 32) there were already occupation deposits on this site before the building which was its main feature was erected. In the limited area available only a small part of the plan could be recovered: the recognisable feature of it appears to be a comparatively narrow building, or perhaps a range of rooms, with its long axis north to south and a corridor along part of the east side. The arrangement suggests a barrack-block; but the rooms were too big for this purpose, as far as their sizes could be deter mined, and the relatively high standard of furnishing scarcely supported such a purely military function. Not only had the walls been plastered, with much fragmentary plaster surviving in the overlying deposits, some of it in large pieces: remains of a mosaic floor of plain red tesserae were still in situ. In legionary fortresses a somewhat similar position was occupied by the tribunes’ houses. It may be that in the special circumstances of the Cripple gate fort as the military depot in London accommodation of superior quality was provided within the fort for staff officers or others whose military duties brought them to or kept them in London. The remaining site was that of St. Alban Wood Street (22), lying in the
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praetentura immediately east of the north-south street. The area comprised the site of the church and churchyard and impinged on the north on the Addle Street site (12) which from the Roman point of view was unproduc tive. (Much of the ground to the east was taken up with very deep cellars.) Here the Roman deposits had survived to a thickness of not more than 2 feet: within the church and churchyard burial disturbance had often penetrated below this level. As with the Silver Street site this area produced buildings with long
axes north-south: evidently two elongated ranges facing one another with corridors or verandahs looking on to a 13-foot-wide gravel road (Fig. 6). When first seen the remains had the appearance of barrack-blocks, with fairly uniform rooms (2 1-22 feet each way) and this is probably the best interpretation for them. The area had been occupied sporadically before the stone buildings were erected: amongst the remains of this phase were pits and gullies which produced quantities of pottery broadly of late first-early second-century date. The post-holes met with did not make a coherent plan and there was nothing to suggest that the stone buildings may have had timber predecessors. The walls of the buildings survived to a maximum of three courses above
the foundation offset, but with the building the general level was raised by the laying-down of a deposit of clean red-brown clay. The floor which this clay must have carried had not survived because of destruction. In the limited area available the buildings showed no sign of later alteration apart from the fact that the slight verandah or corridor walls had been removed and replaced by shallow gullies defining the road. In the western range a main wall had subsided into one of the earlier pits. Reused building material was found in its reconstruction. Amongst a quantity of tiles with pink mortar still adhering to them was one with a fragmentary blurred stamp which Mr. R. P. Wright has identified as belonging to the PR BR LON series.1 The value of the evidence from this site is that at the moment it gives
more clearly than any other a date early in the second century (and therefore in the reign of Trajan) for stone buildings within the fort.
