Vinovia[1] or Vinovium was a Roman fort and settlement situated just over 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of the town of Bishop Auckland on the banks of the River Wear in County Durham, England.

Archaeologists found four coins of Vespasian that seem to corroborate that initial building was related to Agricola's march northward into the territory of the Brigantes.

The cavalry units of the ala Vettonum, a cohort of Frisian soldiers, and part of the Sixth Legion might also have stayed here at some point in its history.

An extensive civilian settlement (vicus) existed to the north and west of the fort, the remains of which are buried under the pastures of Binchester Hall Farm.

By the early 6th century, a small Anglo-Saxon cemetery had been founded, and the demolition of the fort's buildings for reclamation of the materials had started, some of which were eventually used in the construction of the nearby 7th-century Escomb Church.

In 1552, John Leland wrote that Roman coins had been uncovered in nearby ploughed fields, while William Camden, in 1586, mentioned the remains of some walls could still then be seen.

[10] The first archaeological excavations took place between 1878 and 1880, under the auspices of John Proud of Bishop Auckland and the Reverend Robert Eli Hooppell of Byers Green, investigating the bath-house, some of the fort's defences, and parts of the surrounding settlement.

In 1891, the installation of modern water pipes in the area caused destruction to the northeast corner of the fort, particularly the rampart, Dere Street, and a few vicus houses, but did uncover a large Roman altar dedicated by Pomponius Donatus "beneficiarius of the governor" to Jupiter and the Matres Ollototae (three Celtic mother goddesses originally from the continent).

There he found evidence for post-Roman buildings overlying these ditches, suggesting that the vicus continued as a small settlement after the fort was actively occupied.

[15] The first was the construction of the original courtyard house presumably used by the commandant of the fort, built sometime after the middle of the 4th century atop two previous smaller stone buildings, also presumably praetoria.

Lack of maintenance of the baths can be seen archaeologically in the next period, and in the house, the rooms come to be used for industry, including blacksmithing, lime slaking, and animal butchery.

Along with previous surveys, a picture began to emerge of a quite extensive civilian settlement lying under the fields to the east of the fort, where Hooppell had done his early test trenches.

This led to David Mason, the County Archaeologist, suggesting to the Channel 4 archaeological television programme Time Team that Binchester could provide a fertile ground for investigation.

[19] In 2018, a six-week dig involving 60 archaeologists and volunteers unearthed a road, carved images and several industrial buildings from the Roman era.