Newstead

NT53SE 19 5661 3390.

(NT 5661 2390) Earth House (NR) (site of)

OS 6" map (1967)

A souterrain was discovered a quarter of a mile SE of Newstead in 1845. It consisted of a single narrow, curved, subterranean chamber, measuring 54 ft in length along the medial line and increasing in breadth from 4 ft 2 ins at the entrance to 7 ft at the back. The side walls were dry-built of dressd sandstone and rose vertically to a height of 3 ft; above this height the span was reduced by oversailing corbels formed of Roman cornice-mouldings, two of them a cable, while numerous fat and chamfered stones lying on the floor of the chamber suggested that the roof had been lintelled.

In 1849 a second souterrain was found about 100 yds E of the first. It is said to have been of the same general character, but was built of whinstone as well as sandstone and the stones were not so neatly dressed. There is no direct evidence that any of them were Roman.

Both structures were destroyed on discovery.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1947; J A Smith 1855; F T Wainwright 1963

No traces of these souterrains remain.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 13 February 1961