Isurium Brigantum

(Aldborough)

The Roman Regional Capital

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Few places in England boast the historic interest possessed by Aldborough, the " Iseur " of the Brigantes, afterwards the Isurium of the Romans. That this was an important city in the time of the Brigantes seems pretty clear, and its further development under the Romans is sufficiently attested by the numerous foundations, pavements, coins, etc (Ryedale and North Yorkshire antiquities, George Frank, 1888, page 47).

Regional Roman Capital

Isurium Brigantum was a Roman fort and town at the site of present-day Aldborough.

In 71 CE Vespasian sent an army under Quintus Petillius Ceralius to march north and occupy Brigantes and Parisii territory. The Ninth Legion erected a large camp near where Malton (northeast of York) stands today. They also built a fort at Roecliffe, near to modern Aldborough, which was occupied between about 71 to 85 CE. Roecliffe was one of a string of forts along the line of Roman routes northwards, which provided the main Roman transport corridor. It was probably garrisoned by about 500 legionaries and the fort established a new area of Roman authority.

Aldborough was established far south of the Brigantes stronghold at Stanwick and there is no evidence of prior iron age settlement there. This contrasts with many other civitas centres, which were often established at the locations of prior indigenous settlements. Pollen evidence suggests it was grassland, not woodland, like much of the local area, so it was likely to have been already occupied for agruculture. However this would have been a dispersed population.

The Roecliffe fort was the Conquest era crossing point over the River Ure, but it was abandoned by 80 to 85 CE. It was probably on the route of early Roman penetration inland up Wenslydale, and the Dere Street route along the line of the resent A1 came later.

A road system was soon established, focused on the new military centre at Eboracum. The strategic focus was adjusted to a place a few kilometres downstream from Roecliffe, at the highest navigable point on the river Ure, which led to the establishment of a small town which would become a vital point of communication, administration and trade in the Roman north. The Roman road which passed through the town which became known as Isurium Brigantum (modern Aldborough) was on both Dere Street (connecting Eboracum (York) to the Antonine Wall) and Watling Street (connecting Eboracum with Luguvalium (Carlisle)). There are three milestones which have been recovered from the vicinity of the town from the time of Emperor Decius (249 to 251 CE). As Dere Street continued north of Isurium, it branched into two forks, one leading to Cataractonium (Catterick) and on to Hadrian’s Wall, and the other to Delgovicia (Malton). The road system provided access to trade and this has been evidenced by archaeological finds, including Samian pots from Gaul.

The fact that some of the principal British roads converged at this point, contributed in no small degree to the importance of Isurium. … The Romans finding a complete system of roads, of the first importance for the movement of their armies, incorporated the above formations with their own, one of the principal of which, the great central road or street, (Watling Street,) entered Yorkshire and proceeded by way of Tadcaster, (Calcaria,) York, (Eboracum) and Isurium, through Catterick, (Cattaracton,) and turning northwards joined the great Roman Wall on the Tyne.

When these roads struck a river, it was crossed by a ford, which was the case at Isurium, and as the Romans planted their different legions at various points, it added greatly to their traffic and consequence.

(Ryedale and North Yorkshire antiquities, George Frank, 1888, page 47).

The location of modern Boroughbridge may have been navigable from the sea and a river terrace gave access here as close to the river as possible. The region was a centre of lead and silver resources. The location of the new settlement may have been connected with navigability and the access to local resources. There was smithing activity up to the early third century including iron works and fire places. It may have been part of a network of supply to the Roman military and in time became a stage en route to Hadrian’s Wall.

Isurium began as a trading settlement at the crossing point across the Ure and became the civilian capital of an extensive region of north Britain from about 120 CE until about 400 CE. There is evidence of activity at this location from about 70 CE. It grew to a site of about 20 hectares by the end of the First century and started to take a role in local administration. By 120 CE the new route of Dere Street had taken shape.

Towards the end of the first century CE, Isurium was first recorded in two wooden writing tablets which were found at the fort of Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall. They recorded purchases made at Isurium by travellers between York and the frontier. The tablets evidence a significant settlement by this time.

Isurium became one of the northernmost urban centres of the Roman Empire. Isurium probably became a civilian settlement between the Roecliffe fort and the River Ure during the last part of the first century. The Civitas Capital was probably established in about 160 AD.

The Roman civitas was the administrative centre of the region. Roman towns such as Exeter, Leicester, Chichester and Canterbury had the same status. Civitates tended to be loosely based on Celtic tribal territories and they often involved some element of administration by the old Celtic aristocracy.

Excavations at Aldborough have enabled reconstruction of the history of the development of Isurium into a flourishing urban centre. The town was fortified with a stone wall in the late second century (perhaps 150 to 180 CE), indicating its important status, and the settlement eventually sprawled well beyond its walls, perhaps an indicator of economic success. The original town wall used locally quarried red sandstone blocks and must have been about 2.5 metres thick and 5 metres high. Towers were initially built on the inside face of the walls and there was a ditch which was probably 6m wide and 2 metres deep. In time limestone was imported some 30 kilometres from the dales and an eventual variety of different stone material suggests a wide network of trade which probably used the river for heavy transport.

The defended town formed a rectangular area of 390 by 590 metres, abut 22 hectares. After the construction of the town wall, Isurium grew into a mature town. There were large town houses to the south and the character to the north was more commercial and industrial.

Further bank and ditch defences were erected later. Stone walls and four gates were added in the mid third century sometime after the time when the Emperor Septimius Severus (193 to 211 CE) based his imperial court at Eboracum. The visible remains of the walls today are a small fraction of the Roman town.

Isurium flourished for the next hundred years, with the building of elaborate private homes with fine decorative mosaic floors. It became a centre of Roman civilisation and was probably occupied by local people.

A significant Roman residential building has been identified at the site, possibly with a bathhouse. Mosaics discovered in town houses are evidence of the splendour of these buildings and indicate the existence of a wealthy elite. The mosaics date to the second or early third centuries. One depicts a lion shaded by a tree and another forms a geometric pattern. The Helicon mosaic, of which only a fragment remains, has been interpreted to have depicted the theatrical muse, Thalia.

An amphitheatre was built to the southeast of the town. The banks would have supported wooden walkways providing a base for tiers of seats. More modest arenas such as this one were common across Britain and would have provided various forms of entertainment including gladiatorial combat and fighting with wild animals. A mosaic from Rudston (near the coast at Bridlington) suggests some encounters with exotic animals such as leopard, bulls, lion and stag, but it is perhaps more likely that any animals used would have been bears or wolves who were indigenous to the area. The amphitheatre was probably also used for other gatherings and for military training. It may also have had a religious function.

It was usual for the approaches to Roman towns to be lined with funerary monuments, providing contact with the town’s ancestors to those who approached. Pots and traces of substantial graves have been found suggesting cemeteries at the edge of Aldborough.

Various objects discovered at Aldborough, including ceramics, fragments of glass and pottery, brooches, jewellery and material associated with the Roman army, suggest a prosperous and well established society with military associations and good access for trade. Rich finds of personal adornment evidence conspicuous displays of ethnic and class differentiation.

Around the fourteenth century church of St Andrews is the site of the Roman forum, comprising a forum square surrounded by a basilica (a multifunctional public building) and large town houses.

The defences were enhanced in the fourth century CE by the addition of towers projecting outward from the walls, and by additional external ditches, providing an impressive appearance to the town. This suggests a more unstable society amidst general unrest across the Empire, and a need to protect people and trade. By this time there was probably greater social differentiation between rich landowners and those who served and depended on them. External threats were certainly emerging by this time and the strengthening of the walls was a response to those threats.

When Roman power collapsed in the early fifth century, the walled area within the town probably continued to be used, as a source of protection.

Despite the Roman collapse, metal pollution from pollen cores suggests that there was continued lead and iron working at Aldborough. In September 2025 core samples of mud shows metal pollution which suggests that at Aldborough metal production expanded in the early fifth century using the cores and coal fuel of the Roman period. Metal production continued well past 400 CE, only collapsing in about 550 to 600 CE. By the seventh century CE Aldborough fell within the region of Anglo Saxon domination.

The siege by Cadwella described by Bede, which has taken to have been at York, may have been at Aldborough.

Afterwards, the once famous city of the Brigantes and the Romans became known as the " Old Burgh " or Aldborough, in contradistinction to the new Burgh by the Bridge, (Boroughbridge,) a mile distant (Ryedale and North Yorkshire antiquities, George Frank, 1888, page 48).

Between 800 to 1000 CE it became a Saxon burgh, which provided its modern name of ‘old burgh’, Aldborough, and it was listed in the Domesday Book.

It remained a strategically important crossing point over the Ure, the crossing being successfully defended by Edward II at the Battle of Boroughbridge on 16 March 1322 against the baronial revolt of Thomas of Lancaster.

Return to the Contents Page

or

Go Straight to Chapter 5 – Roman Kirkdale

Or read about Eboracum (Roman York), the Roman Villa at Beadlam, and the large villa of Hovingham.

Further reading

Recent Archaeology

Professor Martin Millett's recent Antiquaries' lecture on Roman Aldborough (starts after 6 minutes)

The University of Cambridge Aldborough Town Project was set up in 2009 with access to its publications through that link.

Aldborough Roman Site and Town, English Heritage Guidebooks.

The Defences of Isurium Brigantum (Aldborough), JNL Myers, KA Steer and Mrs AMH Chitty, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Volume 40, page 1.

Aldborough, West Riding, 1964: Excavations at the South Gate and Bastion and at Extra Mural Sites, M U Jones, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Volume 43, 971, page 39.

Aldborough Roman Town: Excavations by Miss D Charlesworth 1961 to 1973 and by RCHME 1959 to 1960, Margaret Snape et al, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Volume 74, 2002, page 29.

Dark Ages? Britain forged ahead with iron long after Roman retreat, The Times, 12 September 2025.

Landscape and Settlement in the Hinterland of Roman Aldborough, Martin Millett, 8 October 2025.