56 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF YORK AND DISTRICT 



It is perhaps to this period that we must assign the filling in of the north- 

 eastern corner tower. In the excavations we found that within the 

 Roman period the basement of the tower had received a very compact 

 filling consisting largely of burnt matter, and this had been strengthened 

 by a row of massive blocks of limestone in two courses extending from 

 the fortress wall to the back wall of the tower. The south-west corner 

 tower in the grounds of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society seems to 

 have been solidified and strengthened in a similar way. The filling in 

 this latter case was removed in 183 1. 



Such, very briefly, are the results of the work carried out by Mr. S. N. 

 Miller for the York Roman Excavations Committee, 1925-8. This 

 work has given us for the first time definite data for the history of the 

 Roman fortress of York. It has, of course, supplied us with a number 

 of new problems that await solution, but these problems in no way affect 

 the main conclusions. 



IX. 



ROMAN MALTON AND DISTRICT 



BY 



PHILIP CORDER, M.A., F.S.A. 



M ALTON .'■ 



Antiquaries have long been aware of the existence of a large Roman 

 fort or camp at Mai ton, but nothing was known of its history before 

 excavation was undertaken by Dr. J. L. Kirk, F.S.A. , in 1927. Malton 

 is situated rather less than half-way between the legionary headquarters 

 at York and the Yorkshire coast, on a tongue of land, the eastward ex- 

 tremity of the Howardian Hills, dominating the Vale of Pickering to the 

 north, and having the river Derwent on the south and east. To the 

 south-east lay the ford over the river, discovered in 1862, from which 

 roads led to the coast and southwards along the western edge of the 

 Wolds to Brough-on-Humber, and so south to Lincoln. This road 

 not only provided the natural line of advance for the troops who first 

 occupied the site in the first century, but may well have been the normal 

 route from Lincoln to York, as it avoids marshy land and awkward river 

 crossings. 



The earliest occupation of the Malton site was probably during the 

 campaign of Petilius Cerialis against the Brigantes, about A.D. 71. It 

 consisted of a large camp of at least 22 acres and probably much more, 



1 The Defences of the Roman Fort at Malton. By Philip Corder, 1930. (Yorks. 

 Arch. Soc.) 



