Blaen Cwm Bach Camp

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NPRN301344
Map ReferenceSS79NE
Grid ReferenceSS7970098780
Unitary (Local) AuthorityNeath Port Talbot
Old CountyGlamorgan
CommunityTonna
Type Of SiteMARCHING CAMP
PeriodRoman
Description
The Roman marching camp at Blaen Cwm Bach is defined by intermitant stretches of bank and ditch describing an elongated, round-angled rectangle, about 880m ENE-WSW by 300m, with a centrally placed entrance with titulum on the western side.

Small scale excavations were carried out in 1969-74; in 1969 -70 an area of the northern sector of the western rampart was examined, and a 'cooking trench', 2.3m by 0.5-0.8m, set at right-angles to the rampart, and a possible oven were recorded. An area immediately to the north, examined in 1972, showed traces of possible hearths, as did an area within the camp's south-western angle, explored in 1974. The rampart appears to have had an inner revetment of stone & clay, whilst the ditch on the western side had been cut to the bedrock, with a tool-cut channel along its base.

The relationship of the camp with the defended enclosure found within its western angle (Nprn307217), is uncertain (see also Carn Caca camp (Nprn304777).

Sources: Choules and Townsend 1970 (AW 10), 17 [26];
Choules and Choules 1972 (AW 12), 25 [34];
1974 (AW 14), 24-5 [44];
RCAHMW 1976 Glamorgan Inventory I.2, 99 no.738.
RCAHMW AP94-CS 0758
RCAHMW AP945101/51-5

J.Wiles 29.11.02