The parish of Riseholme lies immediately north of the Lincoln city boundary and on the east side of Ermine Street as it runs along the top of the Jurassic ridge towards the Humber. It is an area of fertile, easily worked land lying between 130 and 200 ft. above sea-level, and must have presented a sharp contrast, in prehistoric eyes, to the areas of difficult settlement on the low-lying clays to east and west. The latter no doubt came under the plough in Roman times and indeed probably formed the bulk of the territorium attached to the colonia at Lincoln after its foundation at the end of the first century; but the higher ground, with few or no trees to clear, must still have seemed desirable land to the discharged legionary.