Corstopitum

Coria / Corstopitum
Northumberland
Type:	Roman fort
Location
Grid reference:	NY981647
Location:	54°58’42"N, 2°1’59"W
Village:	Corbridge
History
	Built c. 84 AD
Information
Condition:	Ruined
Owned by:	English Heritage

Coria or Corstopitum was a Roman fort and town, two and a half miles south of Hadrian's Wall, near today's Corbridge in Northumberland.

The fort stood at a point where a major Roman north-south road (now known as Dere Street) bridged the River Tyne and met another Roman road, Stanegate, which ran east-west between Coria and Luguualium (the modern Carlisle) in the Solway Plain. Today it is known as Corchester or Corbridge Roman Site.

Much of the village of Corbridge is built of stone taken from Coria. The parish church in particular is an Anglo-Saxon church with Roman stone and even a Roman arch reassembled to serve as an arch between the nave and the tower.

The site is currently in the guardianship of English Heritage and is partially exposed as a visitor attraction, including a site museum.

Name

The full Latin name of the fort and town is uncertain. Its name appears in contemporary records as both Corstopitum and Corie Lopocarium, but these forms are generally believed to be corrupted. Suggested reconstructions include Coriosopitum, Corsopitum or Corsobetum. 'Corsopitum' is the name which appears most commonly in shop names and similar around Corbridge.

When the Vindolanda tablets were discovered at the nearby fort of Vindolanda, preserving contemporary hand-written reports, these gave new insight. The tablets suggest that the Corbridge Roman Site was locally referred to by the simple form, Coria, the name for a local tribal centre. The suffix ought to represent the name of the local tribe, perhaps part of the Brigantes, but its correct form is, as yet, unknown.

Early occupation

There is evidence of Iron Age round houses on the site, but the first Romans in the area built the Red House Fort, half a mile to the west, as a supply camp for Agricola's campaigns.

Forts

The Stanegate at Coria

Soon after Roman victories in Caledonia to the north, around AD 84, a new fort was built on the present site with turf ramparts and timber gates. Internally, barrack blocks surrounded a headquarters building, a commander’s residence, administrative staff accommodation, workshops and granaries. It was probably occupied by a 500-strong cavalry unit called the Ala Petriana, but was destroyed by fire in AD 105. A second timber fort was built guarding a major crossing of the River Tyne at a time when the Solway Firth-Tyne divide was the Roman frontier. Around AD 120, when Hadrian’s Wall was built, the fort was again rebuilt, probably to house infantry troops away from the Wall. About twenty years later, when the frontier was pushed further north and the Antonine Wall built, the first stone fort was erected under the Governor Quintus Lollius Urbicus.

Written reports

Historic England has released a number of monographs on the forts along Hadrian's Wall through the Archaeology Data Service. Bishop and Dore's report on the excavations at Corbridge 1947-80 reveal the complex history of the sequence of mainly earth and timber forts which preceded the masonry buildings (available here). The reports also cover a metal hoard found within the fort, possibly linked to the abandonment between AD 122 and 138

Town development

After the Romans fell back to Hadrian's Wall in AD 163, the army seems to have been largely removed from Coria. Its ramparts were levelled and a major rebuilding programme of a very different nature was instigated. A series of probable temples were erected, followed by granaries, a fountain house and a large courtyard complex which may have been intended to become a civilian forum or a military storehouse and workshop establishment. It was never finished in its original plan.

Burnt timber buildings may relate to Cassius Dio's reference to enemy tribes crossing the frontier, but by the early 3rd century there was more construction. Two compounds opposite the supposed forum were built as part of a military supply depot within the town. It was connected with both the Second and the Sixth Legion and may have been part of the supply network for the northern campaigns of Septimus Severus.

Information on the 3rd- and 4th-century town is lacking, but an elaborate house was certainly put up which may have housed an Imperial official of some kind. Coria was probably a major market centre for the mineral industries in the area – lead, iron and coal – as well as agriculture, as evidenced by the granaries. A pottery store has also been identified. When occupation came to an end is unclear. It is not even known if the site was still occupied when the Anglo-Saxons arrived to found adjoining Corbridge.

The Corbridge Hoard was found here.

In fiction

In Rosemary Sutcliff's 1965 novel The Mark of the Horse Lord the lead character is a gladiator in Corstopitum, before leaving to join the Dal Riata north of the Antonine Wall.

In Ruth Downie's 2008 novel, Terra Incognita, the protagonists find themselves near Coria, as the action opens.

Outside links

• Corbridge Roman Town, Hadrian's Wall - English Heritage
• Archaeological research Hadrian's Wall 1976-2000: Historic England