An extensive Roman industrial settlement occupied the slopes above the river Dee floodplain to the north-east of the present town of Holt. Excavations were undertaken from 1907-1915 and were later published in detail (Grimes 1930), notwithstanding the brevity of the original records. Much pottery and many coins have since been recovered from the site.

The excavations revealed a range of buildings including a massive bank of eight tile and pottery kilns, a further tile or pottery kiln with an adjacent 'workshop', a walled compound enclosing long barracks type buildings and a luxurious house and a separate bathhouse.

The site appears to be an industrial works serving the legionary fortress at Chester. The house would be for the supervisor, possibly a centurion, whilst the barracks accommodated soldiers seconded from their units. Examination of the pottery and coins indicates that it was working between about 85AD and 135AD (Ward 1998). Later material indicates some form of activity up to the later fourth century, although there is little indication that manufacturing continued beyond the mid second century. The site may have remained legionary or imperial territory, possibly as an estate centre.

No surface features survive and the site is manifest mainly in a scatter of tile and pot, with indications of some excavated structures apparent from the air.

Sources: Grimes 'Holt, Denbighshire; the XX Legion at Castle Lyons' in Y Cymmrodor XLI (1930)
Jarrett (ed.) 'The Roman Frontier in Wales' 2nd edition (1969), 42-4
Stephens in the Denbighshire Hististorical Society Transactions 33 (1984), 81-92
in the Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 36 (1989), 224-6
Ward in Studia Celtica 32 (1998), 43-84
in Bird (ed.) 'Form and Function' (1998), Oxbow Monogrph 80, 133-143

John Wiles 13.11.07