Also open to the public is the most complete excavated amphitheatre in Britain, a series of barracks and the National Roman Legion Museum.

But his description confirmed Caerleon as a notable historical site: There are further indications that significant ruins or building survived into the medieval period.

The vast stone complex of the fortress baths are thought to have been destroyed in the 13th century,[4] and the ditch at 10 Mill Street was identified as still standing open in the Middle Ages.

Limited resources and structural difficulties meant all the society's efforts were rapidly taken up with the museum leaving little energy for further archaeological work.

[8] In the 1890s the Bristol-based Clifton Antiquarian Club began excavating at nearby Caerwent and this had the effect of raising the profile of Roman archaeology in Monmouthshire as a whole.

[7] However, after the 1914-18 war it reformed as the ‘Caerleon Excavation Committee’ and gained momentum under the dynamic leadership of Mortimer Wheeler, recently appointed director the National Museum of Wales.

[9] 1927-29: Prysg Field was purchased by the Caerleon Excavation Committee and digs over three summers under V. E. Nash-Williams revealed the western corner ramparts and extensive barracks blocks.

Following the example of the amphitheatre, the Barracks footings (and reconstructed ground plans) were laid out as public parkland on completion of the excavations.

There had long been an awareness of extramural buildings, and some of the earliest excavations had looked at the medieval castle site, near the south-east gates.

Property developments at an extensive site alongside Mill Street, on the north-east side of the fortress, provided an opportunity for more up to date archaeological methods to investigate the area and consider the status of the canabae as a whole.

It was not promoted to regional capital status, as happened at York, but from the limited evidence available at both British and other examples, Caerleon's civil settlement in the 2nd and 3rd centuries would have looked recognisably comparable to most such fortress canabae.

[15] Built early in the fortress's history, it collapsed or was demolished around 350, and the 2010 excavation unearthed thousands of finds including entire sets of Roman armour.

A stone inscription was found that recorded that the building had been constructed by Flavius Rufus, possibly a first-generation Roman citizen who had risen to be Primus Pilus, the first ranked centurian of the II Augustan Legion.

By the end of the 2nd century buildings were just being used to dump rubbish, so whatever its early functions, they ceased to be relevant within 125 years of the troops first arriving.

Amongst the possibilities considered, the buildings may have related to the administration of the legion or the area, and the courtyards might have been assembly yards for troops and animals arriving at the port.