Ilkley Roman Fort
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox castrum Ilkley Roman Fort is a Roman fort on the south bank of the River Wharfe, at the centre of the modern town of Ilkley, a Victorian spa town in West Yorkshire, England.
Identification
The traditional view is that Olicana is the fort at Ilkley, but the identification is not settled.<ref name="wyaas">ILKLEY Template:Webarchive - The Romans in West Yorkshire - West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service</ref> Ptolemy mentions Olikana in his Geographia (c. 150), although Rivet and Smith give Olenacum as the proper form of the name, rejecting Ptolemy's Olikana as corrupt.<ref name="rivet">Template:Cite book</ref> The 1086 Domesday Book gives Ilecliue also variants Illecliue, Illiclei and Illicleia for Ilkley. Modern scholarship has, however, suggested that the Roman name would be better applied to the fort at Elslack (Eleslac in Domesday Book) near Skipton.<ref name="wyaas"/>
Rivet and Smith suggest the name Verbeia instead, this being the Roman name for the River Wharfe.<ref name="rivet" />Template:Rp An altar-stone dedicated to the goddess Verbeia is thought to originate from the site.
History
The first fort at Ilkley was founded by Agricola around 80 AD and was largely constructed of wood,<ref name="ilkley1">Template:Cite web</ref> but this was later abandoned in the 120s.<ref name="wyaas"/> A second fort was erected around 161 AD which survived for 30 years, before being burnt down,<ref name="ilkley1"/> perhaps during a documented rebellion by the inhabitants of northern Britain.<ref name="wyaas"/> It was immediately replaced by a stone fort which survived until the end of the Roman period.<ref name="ilkley1"/> The fort was abandoned in the late 4th or early 5th century.<ref name="ilkley1"/>
A substantial civil settlement, the vicus, formed the nucleus of the village that followed.<ref name="ilkley1"/> Excavations have yet to reveal continuous habitation from Roman times, but it is quite likely that a village established itself within the ramparts of the fort following the Roman departure.<ref name="church1">History of the Church Template:Webarchive - All Saints Parish Church</ref> Anglo-Saxon settlement probably did not take place until well into the seventh century, and the sculptured crosses are evidence of a church here in the eighth and ninth centuries.<ref name="church1"/>
The site today
A wall, once part of the fort, can still be seen from the back of Ilkley Manor House, which stands on the site.<ref name="IMH">Ilkley Manor House website</ref> Around the area are four signs showing the edges of the walls of the fort.<ref name="ilkley2">Template:Cite web</ref> The area of the fort extends underneath the Manor House and nearby All Saints Parish Church whilst the vicus probably existed from the car park in the centre of Ilkley to Christchurch on The Grove. The church and Manor House both have a collection of Roman altars and tombstones, Anglo-Saxon crosses, and Medieval tombstones.<ref name="church2">History of the Building Template:Webarchive - All Saints Parish Church</ref> The Roman altars date to the reigns of Antoninus Pius (138 to 161), and Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (211 to 217).<ref>Shaw, Thomas (1830). The History of Wharfedale, Otley: William Walker, pp.72–5</ref>
References
External links
- Template:Commons category-inline
- Template:NHLE
- Template:PastScape
- Ilkley Manor House - Art Gallery and Museum Template:Webarchive
- ILKLEY - The Romans in West Yorkshire - West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service