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| Herefordshire
in the Romano-British period |
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Roman Conquest
In 43 AD, Aulus
Plautus led a large Roman invasion force across
the channel and most of lowland Britain was
overrun within a fairly short period. The
arrival of the Romans in the area may be
associated with an assault on the Sutton Walls
hill fort, six kilometres to the north of modern
Hereford, where skeletons showing signs of
violent death have been found.
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The presence of a large
Roman army had a major effect upon the economy.
Agriculture was, as in all pre-industrial
societies, by far the principal occupation of
people. Now, however, there was a guaranteed
market for surplus farm produce. The army
required vast quantities of grain as the staple
diet of its troops. It also required meat, fish,
vegetables and fruit. Other requirements were
horses for cavalry units and transport, and
hides for tents, footwear and
clothing. |
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Across lowland Britain,
including Herefordshire, farmers benefited from
this trade. Although 1st century sites in some
parts of the county show little Roman influence,
other settlements, although otherwise unchanged
from pre-Conquest times, began to use high
quality mass-produced tableware and a range
other consumer durables. Imported wine became
common. Here and there, rectangular buildings in
the Roman style replaced the native circular
farmhouses. These new houses were more likely to
be of stone, and where wealth permitted, fitted
with mosaic floors, painted wall plaster and
central heating.
Britain became part of
an empire which stretched from southern Scotland
to the Middle East and North Africa and within
which there was a single currency, and at least
in the towns, a common culture.
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Farmland
The
Herefordshire countryside at this time would
have been fairly open farmland and crossed by
both major paved roads and minor tracks. The
main changes in the landscape from that of the
Iron Age were the paved roads which ignored
previous boundaries. In this landscape were
towns, villages and farmhouses. Fields of corn
and meadows with grazing animals would have been
as characteristic of the area then as they would
be for centuries to come. |
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Larger settlements in
Herefordshire included the walled towns at
Kenchester (Magnis), Leintwardine (Branogenium)
and Stretton Grandison (possibly Eposessa).
Magnis, the best-known town in the area, was
seven kilometres to the west of the site of
modern Hereford, and stood on a main north-south
road which crossed the Wye by mean of a bridge.
There was another smaller settlement at
Blackwardine near Leominster and another at
Staunton-on-Arrow.
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In the south of the county,
at Weston-under-Penyard, Ariconium was a major
industrial centre. Thousands of tons of Roman
slag in the area suggest that iron-working
continued for centuries there, fed by the local
ores and the carefully managed woods of the
Forest of Dean.
Although some settlements
may have been new, many
people continued to
live in places that
had been inhabited in
of pre-Roman times.
Occupation at the Sutton
Walls hillfort continued
through much of the
Roman period. Probably
more typical were the
lowland villages, scattered
through the countryside.
Even though there have been
fairly frequent Roman
finds in Hereford City
itself this is probably
due to the amount of
archaeological work
carried out there. Roman
occupation sites produce
far more Roman material
and it is fairly certain
that there was no settlement
at Hereford during this
period. However the
east-west road from
Kenchester to Worcester
runs just to the North
of Hereford (where it
is known simply as ‘The
Roman Road’) and it
is possible that a shrine
or temple existed in
the area.
It is to the south of the
Wye that the firmest
evidence of Roman period
activity within the
modern city boundary
has been found. On higher
ground where the old
SAS regiment barracks
once stood, the bases
of iron-working hearths
are the first definite
Romano-British evidence
from Hereford.
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