Ilkley
About
Roman troops built this fort around 80 CE on the south bank of the River Wharfe to hold the Brigantian heartland of the Pennines. Earth-and-timber defenses gave way to stone in later rebuilding, and the garrison stayed in place through Trajan's reign and well beyond. Occupation continued in some form until roughly 400 CE, among the longest military tenures in the Pennines. Fragments of its walls survive incorporated into the manor house grounds in the center of modern Ilkley.
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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