The north-south rampart of the Roman Legionary Fortress was excavated at the Lion Walk Site B, 1971-4. The rampart was 3.8m wide and consisted of a bank of sand revetted by two walls of coursed, unfired blocks or slabs of sandy clay loam overlying an oak corduroy. A layer of sandy clay loam laid to the front of the rampart continued into the ditch and may have been intended as a lining.<1>

See also backfilled legionary ditch of Balkerne Lane excavation p.93, CAR3.<2>

During the excavation of the Lion Walk United Reformed Church in 1984 (ECC378), the fortress rampart was revealed and was shown to be at least 3.0m wide. The eastern face of the rampart survived as three courses of unfilled blocks of sandy clay to a height of 0.4m. The precise edge along the western side was not located but a layer of charcoal , possibly resulting from the destruction of a timber revetment, indicated where it had been. Under the rampart were traces of wooden corduoy consisting of seven east-west timbers discernable as stains on the surface of the underlying sand. Between the rampart and the ditch (MCC478) was a 1.6m wide berm. The rampart was found to have been demolished and the debris from its destruction used to backfill the military ditch. No dating evidence for the destruction of the defences was recovered but the stratigraphical relationships observed matched those at Lion Walk (ECC330) indicating that a date between AD 50 and 55 is likely.<3>

See also Legionary Fortress Ditch <MCC478>.