Catterick
About
Military engineers raised a fort on the south bank of the River Swale to secure this crucial crossing on Dere Street, the main road north to the frontier, by the 80s CE. The fort was a distinct military installation, separate from the large civilian town and roadside settlement that grew up alongside it along the highway corridor. Its garrison held the crossing through Trajan's reign as traffic and supplies moved north. Rebuilding phases through the Roman period eventually saw the site grow into one of the largest small towns in Roman Britain.
What happened here
Five hundred men, sometimes a thousand, recruited from a province rather than from citizens, and often stationed a long way from where they were raised. Cavalry units get a bigger fort and far more stabling; the smell tells you which kind you are in before the plan does. The layout copies a legionary fortress at a quarter of the size — headquarters, commander's house, granaries, barracks, a bath house usually built outside the walls because of the fire risk. Duties are patrolling, escorting, customs, and policing rather than pitched battle. After twenty-five years a man is discharged with citizenship for himself and his children, recorded on a bronze diploma he keeps for life. A village grows outside the gate within a decade.
Sources
Nearby
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