What the Romans did for us – and where to find best sites to visit!
From Bignor in Sussex to Hadrian’s Wall in the north, from Brecon Gaer in Wales to Beadlam in Yorkshire and Antonine Wall in Scotland, there are remains and ruins of the Romans.
Archaeologist Denise Allen and her co-author Mike Bryan highlight places to visit and sights to see in Roman Britain and Where to Find It.
They talk to Sue Wilkinson about the book.
What sparked your interest in Roman Britain?
Denise
When I started in archaeology as an excavator, I was more drawn to earlier prehistoric times and the allure of remote monuments whose purpose often remains obscure because we can never know what people were thinking.
My ‘way in’ to Roman archaeology was via their sophisticated technology, which has left such a lasting legacy, and the fact they brought writing to Britain, allowing us to know what was inside their heads, what they considered important, what they wanted posterity to think of them. The way they absorbed local culture and blended with it to form a uniquely Romano-British way of life is fascinating.
Mike
I have been fascinated with the Romans and Roman Britain from a very early age. Initially as my primary school lay over a Roman Road: a trip from one side of the playground to the other felt like a journey through time. The Romans were then inculcated in my psyche from reading Rosemary Sutcliff ’s The Eagle of the Ninth followed by a school trip to Rome as a teenager. And years of ‘wet Welsh’ holidays with my parents provided many opportunities to visit castles, abbeys and Roman forts.
Where did your research take you ... and how long has the book been in the making?
Both
Between us Mike and I visited all the visible and accessible remains described in the book, from Scotland to the tip of Cornwall and from Anglesey to Norfolk. We rarely made these visits together, but travelled with our own families and friends, and sometimes alone. I loved making itineraries for myself, and there is immense satisfaction to be had in ticking the sites off a list! It started slowly, and gathered pace once we had a publisher and a deadline – about 3 years of visits in all. Although we had both visited many of the sites in years gone by, it was important to see them again in their current condition, and also with the unifying eye of the brief of the book: how much can be seen, how do you get there, how does it fit into the overall picture of Roman Britain, and what is its unique contribution to that story.
Did you make any ‘discoveries’ that were less well-known?
Denise
All the sites in the book have visible remains which are accessible to the public, so we can’t pretend that we discovered anything completely unknown – all had been found and excavated or preserved previously.
Many of the sites are very little-known except by those who live nearby and who take a special interest in such things. Several are hidden in the basements of shops, and in one pub in York.
Others are rather ordinary-looking chunks of wall still standing in churchyards; churches often have Roman inscriptions or sculptures built into their fabric, or taken inside for safety. It’s a wonderful mixture of magnificently presented villas and forts and chunks of wall so well-built that they have continued to stand for 2000 years, being incorporated into many later structures along the way.
Mike
As an enthusiast I thought I knew most of the places of Roman Britain but soon found out that there were many that were new to me, including a signal station on Holyhead Mountain, a bathhouse in a modern cul-de-sac in Prestatyn or a town wall in the middle of a bookshop in Lincolnshire.
Many were only discovered by asking local inhabitants where Roman remains could be seen. Some of the best things we found were the stories behind some of the artefacts, like the Piddington Gladiator knife.
Now in the British museum, the knife was unearthed by a novice archaeologist who found it after changing places with their more experienced neighbour.
After a few more scrapes with the trowel they then had the honour of finding a National Treasure. You can’t help feeling sorry for the other digger!
What are your favourite sites and why?
Denise
My favourite villa is Brading, on the Isle of Wight, for its amazing mosaics, including the cockerel-headed man we have on our back cover, though Fishbourne, Bignor and Lullingstone are also very special. Favourite fort might be Brecon Gaer, for its unexpectedly good preservation behind a Welsh farm, although the whole of the Hadrian’s Wall frontier is just fabulous. Richborough in Kent, because it tells practically the whole story of Roman Britain from invasion, to monumental gateway to the province, to rebuilding as part of the system of Saxon Shore Forts along the East Coast.
I also loved hunting down a trio of inscriptions in Cornwall, two of them in churches with some beautiful later paintings to enjoy too, another in a garden. The giant Bartlow Hills Roman burial mounds in Cambs, as they are so atmospheric and unexpected, and I visited on a damp early evening just as the sun came out.
Mike
So many favourites, one could enthuse for hours and hours. Vindolanda in Northumberland never ceases to entertain, with internationally important artefacts, like designer shoes and boxing gloves, being discovered every year and housed in a state of the art Museum.
The Antonine Wall gallery at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow takes your breath away as does the clever use of smoke and mirrors at the new London Mithraeum Museum.
The deserted Roman City of Silchester complete with amphitheatre, just to south of Reading, has an enduring attraction for me, with a full circuit of town walls defending nothing today apart from a Norman Church and a medieval manor house. It feels a very special place. It also has some claim for being part of the inspiration of The Eagle of the Ninth and The Lord of the Rings.
What debts do we owe them – what did the Romans ever do for us?
Both
So much ... as the Monty Python sketch illustrated. One of my favourite descriptions of what we lost when this period of history finished is that it marked ‘the end of comfort’.
Under-floor heating, baths with reliable hot water, free flow of goods from around the Mediterranean world, opulent public monuments and private houses. Not everyone had the latter, but even modest RomanoBritish farmsteads seem