I found myself in the Yorkshire Dales on Sunday and decided to head on up to Bainbridge to see the Roman fort.
The very well-defined almost square-shaped earthworks of Bainbridge Roman fort, lie just a little to the east of the village on the opposite side of the river Bain (England’s shortest river) at a place called Brough. The Romans called this fort Virosidvm – ‘the settlement of true men’. Thought to have been built in the Late Flavian period and abandoned by the late 4th century, it has a single ditch surrounding the north, east and south sides.
Three Latin inscribed building and military-type stones found here record that rebuilding took place after it was burnt to the ground in the early 3rd century AD – the rebuilding being carried out by the VI cohort of Nervi or Cohors Sextae Nerviorum. An earlier 2nd century timber fort was replaced by one made of stone, something that happened at many Roman forts in Brittannia. As well as the three stones with Latin inscriptions a further stone bearing a crudely carved mermaid was discovered and also substantial amounts of metalworking material and ingot moulds. It is believed there are Roman stones built into a number of cottages and farm buildings in and around Bainbridge.
