So I’ve talked a little about me and about what it’s like to work on the site so I guess it’s about time to talk about the site itself!

All the information for this post came from the University of York and if you wish to find out more then come along to Steve Roskam’s site tour on the 13th. Disclaimer: the excavation at Malton is ongoing and therefore anything that is said here it to the best of the departments knowledge and it may, in time, change due to new information.

Let’s start with the basics: where is Malton?

Malton is a small town on the river Derwent outside York. Most children in area will visit it at least once on a school trip because it is also home to ‘Eden Camp’: a prisoner of war camp turned interactive museum.

The site we are working on is known as ‘Orchard Fields’ and it is next door to the old lodge. The lodge is a 17th century tudor mansion that was once the gatehouse for larger building that stood behind it that doesn’t exist anymore. The story goes that the two sisters who inherited the building couldn’t agree on who got to own it and it was decided that they would split the building: literally. However what is more likely is that the sister’s sold the house because they had no use for it: either way the gatehouse is currently all that survives. You can find out more about the lodge here:
http://www.theoldlodgemalton.co.uk/

Next door to the lodge is the large field known as ‘Orchard Fields’ which is the home of a Roman fort. If you know anything about Roman forts you will know that often what arises around them is a small town or village called a ‘vicus’ which would house all the non-military folk associated with the fort. This could be the wives and children of the soldiers, the merchants who made their clothes or even the retired military-men. These vicus exist around many major Roman forts across the UK. This is site that we are currently excavating on. You can learn more about that here:
https://www.archaeology.co.uk/tag/roman-vicus

Our excavations focus is around the Roman road that led from the north into the fort as this seems to be where the vicus is centralised. We have trenches open on both sides of the road with the aim being to work out how the settlement changed as it got further away from that central point. Currently we’re not 100% sure what the time of occupation was but there seems to be some evidence that it was occupied during the 2nd century and possibly was still in use after the end of Roman occupation of Britain. You can find out more here:
http://www.maltoncastlegarden.org.uk/history

Unfortunately, the site is under a farm and therefore has a lot of ploughing damage which is making it hard to diagnose so features at the moment. However by the end of this excavation period we should have a better idea of what some of them are and some interesting questions are already being raised about the nature of the site.

That’s about all we know for now. I would highly recommend coming along to the site tour next Monday if you can make it because it will go into the features we’ve found in much more depth. If you have any specific questions then please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them,

~Amy 🙂