Binchester (Vinovia) was founded around 80 AD and for a time one of the largest Roman military installations in the whole of Northern Britain. About 7 hectares in size it was large enough to have accommodated a battle-group formed of several cohorts of legionary infantry and one or more units of auxiliary cavalry. Even when it was reduced to 4 hectares around 160 AD it was still the largest fort in County Durham.

We know from inscriptions that the garrison of this later fort was a cavalry unit originally recruited in central Spain accompanied at some point by a unit of cavalry originating from the area we now know as Holland. The fort, which continued to be occupied down to the end of the Roman period, was accompanied by a large civil settlement around it. People continued to live in the fort for several centuries after Britain ceased to be part of the Roman Empire.