Metchley Fort
Encyclopedia
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
fort in what is now Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
It lies on the course of a Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
, Icknield Street
Icknield Street
Icknield Street or Ryknild Street is a Roman road in Britain that runs from the Fosse Way at Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire to Templeborough in South Yorkshire...
, which is now the site of the present Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham is an NHS hospital in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, situated very close to the University of Birmingham. The hospital, which cost £545 million to construct, opened in June 2010 replacing the previous Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Selly Oak Hospital...
and the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
in Edgbaston
Edgbaston
Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
. The fort was constructed soon after the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. The fort was around 200 square metres (2,153 sq ft) in area and was defended by a turf and earth bank with a timber wall, towers and double ditches. Within the fort were timber buildings including barrack blocks, a granary, a workshop and a store. In AD 70, the fort was abandoned, only to be reoccupied a few years later before being abandoned again in AD 120.
Remains have also been found of a civilian settlement, or vicus
Vicus (Rome)
In ancient Rome, the vicus was a neighborhood. During the Republican era, the four regiones of the city of Rome were subdivided into vici. In the 1st century BC, Augustus reorganized the city for administrative purposes into 14 regions, comprising 265 vici. Each vicus had its own board of...
alongside the fort. It consisted of timber buildings and yards alongside a road leading from the fort's west gate, and was occupied for just a few years, when the fort was at its largest.
The fort was extended on three sides by the addition of defended annexes, which were used for tethering horses, storage and small-scale industrial activity such as ironworking. Later the fort's buildings were replaced by other structures including compounds which suggest that it was now being used as a stores depot.
The remains were first identified in the 18th century, although there were conflicting opinions on the origins of the earthworks. The date was confirmed in excavations that took place in the 1930s when the University of Birmingham Medical School
University of Birmingham Medical School
The University of Birmingham Medical School is one of Britain's largest and oldest medical schools with over 400 Medics graduating each year. It is based at the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England...
was constructed. Further excavations took place in the 1940s and 1950s. On September 28, 1953, the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, G. H. W. Griffith, opened the newly restored north-west corner of the fort. The reconstruction of the corner did not last long, however, as it was later destroyed by vandals. More extensive excavations took place in the 1960s which uncovered various timber buildings within the fort. Discoveries from excavations in the early 2000s included ovens and hearths, timber gateways, roads, the headquarters building, vessels from the Severn Valley
Severn Valley
Severn Valley could be*The Severn Valley in Shropshire, English Midlands *The Severn Valley Country Park in Shropshire, English Midlands *The fictional Severn Valley...
and the Malvern Hills
Malvern Hills
The Malvern Hills are a range of hills in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern...
, and tableware from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
The remains of the fort are one of thirteen Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Birmingham.