History - The Romans are coming

Moving on again Julius Caesar and his Roman Legions who came to have a look at us about 40 BC and went away again leaving only a little trace of their presence.

The Romans returned again about 30 AD and this time came to conquer and settle, which they did. They built a main road north through this area building a town at Verulanium. Roman kilns have been excavated at Loom Lane and Willow Way where pottery has been found with the potter’s name Castus.

The Romans introduced their own method of building much as it is today. They dug footings and built their walls and buildings on top with their own composition of cement. A vast improvement on the Britons who dug foot holes and erected their wooden buildings thereon and who were partly driven out by the Romans.

With attacks upon their Eastern Front in Europe from mainly Germanic tribes the Roman legions and most of their people withdrew back to Rome, leaving these islands open to invasion from Angles, Saxons and Jutes (from Jutland) who settled here and brought us the English language and the name of our country Angleland. Then there were further invasions by the Vikings from Denmark and Scandinavia who settled mostly in North England and along the Firths of Tay and Forth.

© Brian Hyde