Longovicium was Lanchester's Roman name and although the meaning is open to dispute, later settlers called it 'Lang Chester', meaning the long Roman fort.

It was certainly a large fort covering six acres and its remains can still be seen on the south side of the B6296 road to Satley a quarter of a mile south west of Lanchester.

The ancient Roman road of Dere Street crosses the Satley road at right angles making its way north from York to Scotland, but the course of the Roman Road is hard to find amongst the fields. Longovicium is easier to locate on private farmland half way between Lanchester and the little hamlet of Hollinside.

Three Roman aqueducts collected water from the hills west of Longovicium and provided water to the fort. They seem to have converged at a point close to where Hollinside Terrace now stands.

The aqueducts curled their way round the foot of nearby Humber Hill and it has been suggested that the hill was the site of a Roman signal station that enabled Lanchester to communicate with the fort at Ebchester.

Only very slight traces of the Roman aqueducts can be found, most notably near Hollinside, where a row of trees now grows along the course. In the hills three miles to the west are the slight remains of a semi-circular Roman dam located in the valley of a little stream near Castleside.

This dam maintained the correct level of water in one of the aqueducts to ensure a constant supply of water to the fort. Water at the fort was stored in a number of wells and a reservoir seems to have been located in the south west corner of the fort. It was used for drinking and bathing, as a bathhouse is known to have existed at the fort.

Dere Street was built around 80 AD during Roman military campaigns into Caledonia and predates Hadrian's Wall by approximately forty years. Longovicium was built approximately twenty years later by the 20th legion and was built later than the neighbouring Dere Street forts of Ebchester (Vindomara) on the River Derwent near Consett and Binchester (Vinovia) near Bishop Auckland.

Longovicium appears to have superseded both of these forts in importance. The fort served as an important military garrison on Dere Street and protected the road's crossing of the River Browney and its neighbouring tributaries of the Alderdene and Smallhope Burns.

There is no public access to Longovicium fort but the local family called Greenwell, who have owned the land here since 1633 take every care to protect the site. It is possible to get very close to the fort however and a small car park is provided with a helpful information board giving details of the site's history.

The information board stands near the north western corner of the fort, but Dere Street itself ran along the fort's eastern flank.

Longovicium was of course a military establishment, but there is evidence of a significant civilian settlement in Roman times just outside the fort to the north and south.

Traders, merchants, retired soldiers and perhaps even Roman soldiers' wives would have resided in such a settlement, but they were not allowed to take up residence in the fort itself. The present Lanchester village site was probably not occupied at this time, but there were native settlements in the surrounding hills.

Roman soldiers are often perceived as being Italian in origin, but this was rarely the case in Britain. For many years the soldiers garrisoned at Longovicium were Lingones of Gaulish origin, originating from what is now France. During another era soldiers called Suebi (Swabians) of German origin who served in the Roman army were garrisoned at the fort.

The fort was occupied for around three hundred years and it is interesting to speculate that there might even be people in the area who can still trace their origins back to those times.

There is some evidence that Longovicium fell out of use during the first half of the third century but it underwent some restoration in the fourth century when it appears to have come back into use. Although little can be seen on the ground today, the fort is known to have had walls standing 15 feet tall.

Dr A.K Steer undertook the last major archaeological excavation of the fort in 1937, but in the early 1990s a magnetic survey was undertaken at the fort that provided a very useful insight into the layout of Longovicium.

The fort included a headquarters building and a commandant's house along with several other buildings, but there are very few surface traces to be seen.

Two hundred years ago, features remaining at the fort were probably more visible and it is believed that local acts of enclosure in 1773 forced many people to plunder the Roman site for its stone, for the construction of local farms and walls.

Lanchester's parish church and many of the older stone houses in Lanchester village are thought to incorporate stones from the old fort.

Several inscribed Roman stones from Lanchester can be seen in Durham University's archaeological museum housed in the riverside fulling mill, beneath the towers of Durham Cathedral while others can be seen at Newcastle's Museum of Antiquities.

However one of the most impressive Roman finds is an altar dedicated to the Swabian goddess called Garmangabis that can be seen in the village church. It was found in farmland outside the fort and may have been situated in a temple to her honour.

In next week's Durham Memories we will explore the village of Lanchester.

If you have Durham memories you would like to share with The Northern Echo, write to David Simpson, Durham Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. E-mail David.Simpson@nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505098