Vinovia or Vinovium was a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
fort
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...
and settlement situated just over to the north of the town of
Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham, England, Durham.
M ...
on the banks of the
River Wear
The River Wear (, ) in Northern England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers. The Wear wends in a steep valley t ...
in
County Durham, England. The fort was the site of a hamlet until the late Middle Ages, but the modern-day village of
Binchester
Binchester is a small village in County Durham, England. In 2001 it had a population of 271. It is situated between Bishop Auckland, which is to the south, and a short distance to the west of Spennymoor. It has a community centre, swing park and ...
is about to the east, near
Spennymoor
Spennymoor is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is south of the River Wear and is south of Durham. The civil parish includes the villages of Kirk Merrington, Middlestone Moor, Byers Green and Tudhoe. In 2011 the paris ...
. The ruins are now known as the Binchester Roman Fort.
History of the fort and
The fort
Not much is yet known about pre-Roman settlement in the immediate area. The fort was probably established around AD 79 to guard the crossing of the
River Wear
The River Wear (, ) in Northern England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers. The Wear wends in a steep valley t ...
by
Dere Street
Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman roads, Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge (Hadrian's Wall was crossed at the Portgate, just to the north) and continuing beyond int ...
, the main Roman road between
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
,
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...
and Scotland, and also the fort's main street (
''via principalis''). Sitting atop a hill above the Wear, Binchester was the largest Roman fort in County Durham. The land was cleared of trees and brush and a huge levelling fill laid down on the plateau before construction of the fort began. Archaeologists found four coins of
Vespasian
Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...
that seem to corroborate that initial building was related to
Agricola's march northward into the territory of the
Brigantes
The Brigantes were Ancient Britons who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England. Their territory, often referred to as Brigantia, was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire. The Greek geog ...
.
Two phases of timber structures, most likely barrack blocks, were constructed atop the levelling deposit. Much later, perhaps centuries later, buildings inside the fort were levelled and reconstructed in stone. These included a commandant's house at the heart of the fort and a well-appointed baths building, both of which went through several phases of development (see below under the archaeological history).
The garrison
It is not entirely clear which garrison units would have called Binchester home. The and the have been mentioned in inscriptions from the site. The cavalry units of the , a cohort of Frisian soldiers, and part of the Sixth Legion might also have stayed here at some point in its history.
In fact, it may have been men from the who built the original fort.
The
An extensive civilian settlement (
''vicus'') existed to the north and west of the fort, the remains of which are buried under the pastures of Binchester Hall Farm. The southern part of the fort is now beneath Binchester Hall, while some of the defences were destroyed in a landslip in the 19th century. Part of the stone bridge on which
Dere Street
Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman roads, Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge (Hadrian's Wall was crossed at the Portgate, just to the north) and continuing beyond int ...
crossed the
River Wear
The River Wear (, ) in Northern England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers. The Wear wends in a steep valley t ...
can still be seen when the river is low. In 2007, several mausolea were found to the north of the .
Later history
Although the Roman occupation of Britain ended officially around 410, the area around Binchester seems to have remained occupied by the local population. By the early 6th century, a small
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
cemetery had been founded, and the demolition of the fort's buildings for reclamation of the materials had started, some of which were eventually used in the construction of the nearby 7th-century
Escomb Church
Escomb Church is the Church of England parish church of Escomb, County Durham, a village about west of Bishop Auckland. It is one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon churches in England and one of only four complete Anglo-Saxon churches remaining in Engl ...
. A hamlet and
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
survived at Binchester until the late
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
. The site of the
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
is now occupied by the 17th-century Binchester Hall.
Archaeological excavations at the fort and
Early discoveries
The remains of the fort have been known to antiquarians and historians since the 16th century. In 1552,
John Leland wrote that
Roman coins
Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum#Numismatics, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction during the Roman Republic, Republic, in the third century BC, through Roman Empire, Imperial ...
had been uncovered in nearby ploughed fields, while
William Camden
William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland that relates la ...
, in 1586, mentioned the remains of some walls could still then be seen. A
bath-house was found in 1815 when a farm cart accidentally fell into part of a
hypocaust
A hypocaust () is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm the upper floors a ...
. The ruins did not fare well under the early 19th-century occupants of Binchester Hall. In 1828, "altars, urns, and other relics" were robbed out and taken away to be used as props inside coal pits in the area. Binchester Hall, the fort and surrounding land were subsequently bought by the
Bishop of Durham
The bishop of Durham is head of the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Paul Butler was the most recent bishop of Durham u ...
.
Victorian excavations
The first archaeological excavations took place between 1878 and 1880, under the auspices of John Proud of
Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham, England, Durham.
M ...
and the Reverend
Robert Eli Hooppell of
Byers Green
Byers Green is a small village located in the Wear valley, County Durham, England. It is situated approximately 2 miles from the A688 road, which connects the town of Bishop Auckland to the city of Durham. The village is adjacent to the River We ...
, investigating the
bath-house, some of the fort's defences, and parts of the surrounding settlement. However, Hooppell claimed that "(virtually) everything of note found at Binchester before 1879 has perished, or been scattered beyond hope of recovery."
Hooppell had workmen excavate the eastern rampart of the fort where they uncovered a portion of Dere Street which functioned as the fort's
''via principalis''. They also explored the , uncovering several plain buildings. In 1891, the installation of modern water pipes in the area caused destruction to the northeast corner of the fort, particularly the rampart, Dere Street, and a few houses, but did uncover a large Roman altar dedicated by Pomponius Donatus "
''beneficiarius'' of the governor" to Jupiter and the (three Celtic mother goddesses originally from the continent).
20th century excavations
In 1937,
Kenneth Steer
Kenneth Arthur Steer, (12 November 1913 – 20 February 2007) was a British archaeologist and British Army officer. During World War II, he saw active service in Italy and later served as a Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, Monuments M ...
undertook some excavations around the fort's defences as part of his archaeology degree at Durham University. There he found evidence for post-Roman buildings overlying these ditches, suggesting that the continued as a small settlement after the fort was actively occupied. He was also able to identify an early
Agricolan fort under a later one dating to about the 3rd century. Further work continued in 1955 and between 1964 and 1972 when the bath suite was re-excavated and mostly cleared. The 1960s were also the period that the archaeological site came under the guardianship of
Durham County Council
Durham County Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of County Durham (district), County Durham in North East England. The council is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, bein ...
. In 1971, rescue excavation at the northwestern end of Binchester Hall found around six successive layers of timber barracks.
A long-term program of excavation begun by the
Bowes Museum
The Bowes Museum is an art museum, art gallery in the town of Barnard Castle, in County Durham in northern England. It was built to designs by Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson to house the art collection of John Bowes (art collector), Jo ...
for Durham County Council ran from 1976 to 1980, and then again from 1986 to 1988. It focused primarily upon the baths suite and the attached commandant's house, uncovering several phases of activity. The first was the construction of the original courtyard house presumably used by the commandant of the fort, built sometime after the middle of the 4th century atop two previous smaller stone buildings, also presumably ''
praetoria''. It had attractive decor and was meant for a single occupant. Later, but also perhaps in the 4th century, a detached bath suite was built adjoining the house, necessitating the demolition of part of the earlier building. It had three rooms: a warm room, a hot room, and a hot room with two plunge baths. The excavators understood this bath building to be for the use of the commandant only. Still later, the house seems to have lost its singular occupant. Rooms were subdivided and several self-contained units were created in what was originally a large house. The baths received a flagstone court, a triple-arched gateway, and a small anteroom, and it is suggested that the reorganisation of both structures meant the baths were opened to the entire regiment at the fort. A coin of the usurper
Magnentius
Magnus Magnentius ( 303 – 10 August 353) was a Roman general and usurper against Constantius II. Of Germanic descent, Magnentius served with distinction in Gaul, where the army chose him as a replacement for the unpopular emperor Constans. Ac ...
, minted between 350 and 360, may provide a ''
terminus post quem
A ''terminus post quem'' ('limit after which', sometimes abbreviated TPQ) and ''terminus ante quem'' ('limit before which', abbreviated TAQ) specify the known limits of dating for events or items..
A ''terminus post quem'' is the earliest date t ...
'' for these renovations. The baths and house then fell on rough times. Lack of maintenance of the baths can be seen archaeologically in the next period, and in the house, the rooms come to be used for industry, including blacksmithing,
lime slaking, and animal butchery. A
midden
A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...
dug in a channel around most of the building held a great deal of animal bones and debris. Finally, the collapse of a few walls and part of the roof of the baths seems to have heralded the end for the complex some time in the post-Roman period. However, the entire fort seems to have been used as a cemetery from the mid-6th to the 11th centuries. A
Saxon
The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
woman was found buried in the rubble caused by the roof collapse.
Binchester Roman baths, March 2017 warm room (33713972351).jpg, The warm room
Binchester Roman baths, March 2017 cold plunge baths2 (33458817190).jpg, The cold plunge baths
Binchester Roman baths, March 2017 second hot room3 (33802194486).jpg, The second hot room
Post-2000 excavations

Around of the were mapped with a
geophysical survey
Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Detection and analysis of the geophysical signals forms the core of Geophysical signal processing. The magnetic and gravitational fields emanating from the ...
in 2004. Along with previous surveys, a picture began to emerge of a quite extensive civilian settlement lying under the fields to the east of the fort, where Hooppell had done his early test trenches. This led to David Mason, the
County Archaeologist
A county archaeologist is a local government employee in the United Kingdom responsible for overseeing development-led archaeological investigations as required by PPG16. Nominated as the archaeological advisor by each local planning authority, ...
, suggesting to the
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
archaeological television programme ''
Time Team
''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4, Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned in 2022 on online platforms YouTube and Patreon. Created by television produce ...
'' that Binchester could provide a fertile ground for investigation. In April 2007, the production company came and spent three days excavating and extending the area surveyed by geophysical means. Apart from discovering more remains of the larger, earlier fort, the programme also found a row of three military mausolea, "the first to have been found in Britain for 150 years." ''Time Team'' also identified that the also extended to the north of the fort. The Binchester programme was broadcast on Channel 4 on 13 January 2008, ending ''Time Teams involvement with the site.
In 2009, a test season was conducted in July where the team opened a trench at the north-east corner of the fort. The first full season of these new excavations was in 2010, with the team opening trenches both inside the fort and outside in the . At
Durham University
Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
, the principal investigators of the project were Richard Hingley and David Petts. At
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, the principal investigators were
Michael Shanks
Michael Garrett Shanks (born December 15, 1970) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as Daniel Jackson in the long-running military science fiction television series ''Stargate SG-1'' and as Dr Charles Harris in the Canadian medi ...
,
Gary Devore, Melissa Chatfield, and David Platt.
In 2018, a six-week dig involving 60 archaeologists and volunteers unearthed a road, carved images and several industrial buildings from the Roman era.
Problems in interpretation of the historical site
Dating aspects of the fort and of Binchester is quite difficult given the limited modern archaeological exploration that has occurred on the site. Most of the floors investigated inside the fort have been of , and kept relatively clean during their life. A few coins have been found under floor deposits, but these often only give a , and coins stop becoming reliable diagnostic items in the 5th century, although settlement in and around Binchester surely lasted into the early medieval period. Modern investigation of the has been non-existent or fruitless in the search for datable finds. It is hoped that the current excavations might inform more about the chronology of the site.
References
External links
History
www.vinovium.org(Stanford Binchester Excavations site)
Binchester Blog(Durham University Excavations blog)
Binchester Roman Fort: Investigation History(Pastscape – English Heritage)
Durham County Council:Binchester Roman Fort
Binchester Fort
– Vinovium
Time Team– Binchester programme pages
Videos
A video visit to Binchester Roman Fort(YouTube – "ovationceleb")
Articles
(The Church of England – 8 January 2008)
(Jennifer MacKenzie – 2 June 2007)
{{Authority control
History of County Durham
Roman fortifications in England
Roman sites in County Durham
Tourist attractions in County Durham
Former populated places in County Durham
79 establishments
70s establishments in the Roman Empire
1st-century establishments in Roman Britain
Scheduled monuments in County Durham
Roman auxiliary forts in England