It was the late Mr. John Clayton of Chesters who laid the foundation of the new knowledge of the Wall which excavation has brought to light. As other people collect antiquities to put in a glass case, so he collected the Roman Wall. Whenever a piece of ground along its line was in the market, he was first in the field to buy it; and to his zeal and knowledge it is due that so much has been preserved and excavated. It was his life-work. Therefore it is no mere figure of speech to say that a visit to the Roman Wall is a visit to his shrine; and since Chesters was his home for so many years, the Museum there, and the very fort of Cilurnum itself are especially commemorative of him and his work.
All the forts along the line follow a general plan, though each has its distinctive features. In plan they are parallelograms, with rounded corners, enclosed by a stone wall at least 5 feet thick, with a circumscribing ditch, and with gateways north, south, east and west.
Fig. 8.—Plan of the Fort of Cilurnum at Chesters. (From Archæologia Æliana.)
These gateways have double portals, which were arched over, and were closed by two-leaved wooden doors, swinging on pivots shod with iron. The doors shut against a stone set up in the centre, or else against a stone threshold. The pivot-holes can very often be seen, and sometimes the iron sheath is still in the pivot-hole, although the wooden door has perished.
In the case of this fort of Cilurnum, as also at Amboglanna, there were six gateways altogether, two smaller ones to the south of the main eastern and western gateways; these had only one portal instead of two.
