AD 43 - AD 410
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In AD
43 the Roman Emperor Claudius sent a fleet to invade Britain. This was
not the first Roman attempt at the invasion of Britain, as in 55 and 54
BC the Emperor Julius Caesar had made 2 unsuccessful assaults.
The Romans in AD 43 invaded at Kent
with 4 legions and 50 auxiliary units commanded by Aulus Plautius. They
quickly defeated the British tribal co-kings of the Catuvellauni, Caractacus
and his brother Togodumnus. Togodumnus was killed and Caractacus fled
into Wales. Claudius was also successful at Colchester and from this point
the legions proceeded forth in a 4-year attempt to conquer the rest of
Southern Britain. |
By AD 47 the Roman frontier of Britain was
marked by the Fosse Way, which ran from Isca (Exeter) to Lindum (Lincoln), via
Corinium (Cirencester) and Ratae (Leicester). This frontier was secured by a series
of Roman forts.
| The Welsh
Marches remained unconquered and the threat from these unconquered people
unnerved the Romans. This fear, as well as the incentives of gold, silver,
lead and copper drew the Romans towards the west and Herefordshire. |
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For a few decades of the middle of the
1st century AD the Welsh Marches formed the western Roman Frontier
in Britain. Herefordshire in the centre of the Welsh Marches does have evidence
of settlements created by the Romans in the border area.
Leintwardine, in the northwest of the
county, shows signs today of its roots as a Roman fort. The high street, which
runs straight through the centre of the village today, still represents the
‘via principalis’ or main street of a Roman settlement. The fort was
built sometime after the 1st century AD and probably after the nearby
fort at Buckton had been demolished. The purpose of the fort appears to have
been that of supply depot for the central Marches. It would have aided further
forays into unconquered territory by the Romans and may have been held by a
single unit of 500 men.
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Closer to
Hereford is the Roman town of Magnis at Kenchester, which lies just a few
miles to the west of the City. Nothing survives of the town above ground
but the perimeter of the town can still be traced in field boundaries, which
enclose an area of 22 acres. Within the perimeter of the town were many
substantial stone buildings and some even had mosaic floors, one example
of which can be seen on the stairs of Hereford Library.
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| Samian
ware pottery from Kenchester. |
Within Herefordshire there are a further four small towns (Blackwardine, Stonechester,
Stretton Sugwas and Ariconium), and a few villas, for example at Wellington Quarry
(SMR 5522) and Putley. Very little is known about any of these sites. Contemporary
with these ‘Roman’ type of settlements are another type; native houses
within large ditched enclosures. We know of at least two of these for they were
recently excavated (SMR 3216, 6007). There may be many more that await discovery.
What was found at these ‘native’ sites was a wide range of 2nd and
3rd century Roman pottery and iron implements that had been imported into Herefordshire
from Manchester, Hampshire and the Severn Valley, but no evidence for a stone
house. It may be that the stone had been robbed out or that the house was made
of wood, thatch and mud that left no trace. At the moment we can only guess at
how the people lived, what they grew or where they worked.
Other evidence of roman activity in Herefordshire takes the
form of miscellaneous finds across the county and a legacy of Roman roads. Romans
are famous for their very straight roads, which created the quickest route from
A – B. Roman roads exist in Herefordshire at Eardisley, Craven Arms to Leintwardine-
which still goes by the name of ‘Watling Street’, and one running across the
north of Hereford City , which today is still called the ‘Roman Road’. These
roads were primarily designed to aid military communication and not communication
between native settlements.
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It is difficult to
identify which tribe the people of Herefordshire belonged to. An inscription
on a milestone found at Kenchester contains the letters ‘RPCD’, which
usually stands for ‘Res Publica Civitatis Dobunnorum’. This suggests that
Herefordshire may have belonged to the tribe of the Dobunni. However this
suggestion does not sit easily with many archaeologists.
Before the Roman conquest the Dobunni
tribe were known to have their own coinage and wheel turned pottery, Herefordshire
had neither and so it is difficult to accept that two areas with such
a vast gap in culture could have belonged to the same tribe. It has also
been suggested that Herefordshire may have formed part of the tribe of
the Silures but this is also problematic. The Silures had numerous hillforts
and pottery, which again does not match with Herefordshire. |
The solution appears to be to put Herefordshire
in the tribe of the Decangi, with whom the Roman Scapula waged war. This proposal
can not be agreed for definite as many of the pre- Roman settlements of Credenhill,
Croft Ambrey and Midsummer Hill have been burnt and abandoned. However this
fact in itself adds more weight to the argument that Herefordshire belonged
to the Decangi, as when the Roman Governor of Britain, Scapula, waged war with
the Decangi as he attempted to push further into Wales, he destroyed and burnt
the huts and settlements that stood before him.
| The romanisation
of Britain brought about many changes in agriculture. One change was the
payment of Tribute Tax, which meant that conquered communities had to provide
corn for the Roman soldiers. This would have meant an increase in the working
of arable land within the county. As a result Rotary Querns were more extensively
used and corn drying ovens, like the one discovered at Sutton Walls in Marden,
were introduced. |
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MG