1. The Broadway Playing Fields occupy the site of the great parade ground of the legionary fortress at Caerleon (NPRN 95647).

The parade ground or CAMPUS, lay below the fortress's south-western ramparts and was enclosed by a wall of distinctive puddingstone blocks. It was a level gravelled area and was the setting for military displays, parades and perhaps training. It is likely that the parade ground ceremonies also involved the amphitheatre to the south (NPRN 95650) and the two sites can be regarded as parts of a monumental ceremonial or religious complex. The only other parade grounds known in Wales and the borders, at Chester and Tomen-y-Mur (NPRN 89404), are also found in association with amphitheatres.

The site is known from trenching, in 1954 & 1964, as well as from more recent evaluation work. Traces of earlier, first century AD timber buildings were recorded and this area appears then to have been part of the extramural settlement around the fortress (see NPRN 301891).

Source: Boon 'Isca' (1974), 31-2

John Wiles 03.03.08

2. The Aerofilms archive (Monmouthshire A-CE, NA/G-EN/2008/020e) contains aerial photographs of Nash-Williams' 1954 excavation trenches over the Parade Ground, taken low over the site on 6th August 1954. These provide a valuable and detailed record of the trenches and explorations made in this area for which no detailed survey plan survives.

T. Driver, RCAHMW, 2015