Turris Barcombe Hill
About
Set on the northern edge of Barcombe Hill above Vindolanda, this signal post gave the Stanegate garrison a clear line of sight across the valley toward the fort below and toward the next tower down the frontier road. Excavations here in 1939 and 1950 uncovered the tower's stone footings inside an earlier Iron Age enclosure.
What happened here
A small stone tower with a timber top, sited so that it can see the next one along the line. Half a dozen men live in it. They watch the ground in front, and they watch the tower on either side. A signal — fire and smoke at night, something visible by day — passes a warning down the chain far faster than a rider can, though it can only carry a message that was agreed in advance. The rest of the time it is a lookout post on a road, a river crossing or a frontier line, and the work is boredom punctuated by inspections. Supplies come up from the fort behind. Towers on a frontier stand within sight of each other for hundreds of miles.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →