Maryport Roman Festival, Senhouse Museum. 24/25 July

[John Conyard]

This weekend Comitatus will be taking Senhosue Roman Museum, Maryport back to AD 410. Six cavalrymen will be practicing at 11 am with shows at 1 and 3 pm.

http://www.senhousemuseum.co.uk/romanfest10.html

The museum is set on the cliff, and has a reconstructed watchtower. Set in an old Victoria artillery Hall known as the Battery, the museum displays the largest group of Roman military altar stones and inscriptions from any site in Britain and unique examples of Romano-British religious sculpture. The collection, which was begun by the Senhouse family in the 1570s, is the oldest in the country, and is of international importance. Most of the objects in the Museum derive from the fort at Maryport and the Roman civil settlement attached to it. In the Museum grounds, you can climb the observation tower for a clear view of the full extent of the site, which recent geophysical survey has revealed to have been one of the largest and best preserved in the north. Or so I've just read