It has always been assumed that if you had “moles in the camp” it was a bad thing. Well, that is certainly not the case at the Roman fort of Epiacum on the Northumbria/Cumbria border in Northern England.
Epiacum – or Whitley Castle – is an isolated Roman fort near Slaggyford, about four miles north of Alston, and being designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, means that it can’t be excavated by humans.
However, colonies of moles have been hard at work on the 1,000-acre site, going where mankind is not allowed. They have dug up numerous artefacts, which can be carefully collected and stored. Over two days last week, a team of 47 volunteers checked on the hundreds of molehills left by nature’s subterranean diggers.
This is the third annual molehill survey and up to 200 possible Roman items have been uncovered. The site at Epiacumis part of Castle Nook Farm and is owned by John and Elaine Edgar. Elaine, a former teacher, has put all her energies into developing the site as a historic tourist attraction, following the award of a £49,200 heritage lottery grant in April 2012.
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| Epiacum is on the Northumbria and Cumbria border |
Elaine said: “Many of the items we have gathered in these two days may only be stones, but they have been taken away for examination. However, we know for certain that some of the pieces are Roman pottery, including rare Samian ware, and a really nice nail, as well as glass.”
It has been revealed that a near-intact piece of Samian ware pottery had been found ahead of the surveys, which Elaine said was one of the finest pieces to have been uncovered. “And the moles have certainly attracted attention again,” she smiled. “Following local press coverage, we had BBC World Service and Radio 4 on the telephone.
“They sent a taxi before 7am on Thursday to take us to the Carlisle studio to do a live piece for the Today programme. There is huge interest in the site and the volunteers on the molehill survey have been really enthusiastic.”
The unearthed pieces are now in the eager hands of Paul Frodsham, the North Pennines AONB Partnership Historic Environment Officer, and are being subject to detailed inspection.
Mr Frodsham said: “We have a large range of different kinds of pottery, glass beads – we even found a ladies’ glass bead in the men’s barracks block, and wondered what it might have been doing there! This year we were late because of the bad winter weather. We had to postpone the survey in mid-March and some of the molehills had been flattened by the snow and frost. But, overall, we have a really good collection of finds.”
Epiacum stands 12 miles south of the main Roman Wall and is believed to have been built by the Romans 2,000 years ago near the ancient silver and lead workings.
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