Longovicium

Longovicium stands on high ground above the Browney valley, about thirteen kilometres west of Durham. The fort guarded Dere Street, the main Roman road linking York with Hadrian’s Wall, twenty kilometres to the north. Its name comes from Brittonic words meaning ‘ship-settlement’ or ‘warrior-settlement’, and the Notitia Dignitatum lists it as Longovicium. The fort had rounded corners, four gates and a deep ditch around its walls. Archaeologists have found the remains of headquarters buildings, a bathhouse and barracks through geophysical survey. A nearby vicus and cemetery have also been identified from the air and in excavation. The fort was built later than others on Dere Street, around the middle of the second century. Legio XX Valeria Victrix constructed it, though they left before it was finished. Rebuilding took place in the early third and again in the early fourth century. The site still holds altars to Roman and Celtic gods, including Jupiter, Mars and Garmangabis, and a milestone to Emperor Gordian III. A column from the commandant’s house now stands in All Saints’ Parish Church in Lanchester. Visitors walk over fields that have never been ploughed, so the buried remains survive well. Two stone-faced aqueducts once brought water from twenty-one springs to the fort and its baths. A large receiving reservoir lies close by, and the water supply may have powered iron-working inside or near the fort. The landscape around the fort offers wide views across the valley, and Dere Street itself can still be traced where it passes the site.