Bannovalum (Horncastle)

Bannovalum or Bannovalvm (Horncastle) was the site of a Roman lesser walled town. The town defences date to the late 3rd/early 4th century AD and it is believed to be the Roman place name Bannovalum, although it is possible this name actually refers to Caistor to the north.

Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, may have been a Saxon Shore fort. Stukeley in the early eighteenth century describes its walls as “three or four yards high, and four yards thick. … It is a perfect parallelogram … at the corners have been square towers, as they report ; the gates were in the middle of three sides, and I suppose a postern” in the fourth. His Plan shows the area as about 31 acres (Stukeley, It. curiosum, p.30). In point of fact the towers were probably round, and the plan is not quite a parallelogram.” (Collingwood, p.49)

The classification of the site as a Saxon Shore Fort would be better described as a Fortified Civil Settlement or Burg, which were also prevalent at the time.

References for Bannovalvm

• The Archaeology of Roman Britain by R.G. Collingwood (Methuen, London, 1930). 

Map References for Bannovalvm

NGRef: TF2569 OSMap: LR122

Roman Roads near Bannovalvm

Ridge trackway: NNW (23) to Caistor (Lincolnshire) W (22) to Lindvm E (20) to Skegness