Roman Britain

Roman Wales

Mar 1, 2024

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, buildings, culture, religion

Anne Neville, British tribes, caerlent, Caerleon, Cardiff Castle, Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Christianity, Colchester Castle, conversion, Demetae, Despensers, Gower Peninsula, Kent, Llanelli, Magnus Maximus, Monmouthshire, Normans, Ordovices, Richard III, River Usk, Robert Curthose, Roman Britain, rugby, Silures, Swansea, Time team, Tower of London, tribes, Wales

The first thing to note about Roman rule in Wales is that it started in 48 AD, a few years later than in England, which is a consequence of the Claudian invasion having started in Kent. It is likely to have finished a little earlier too, in about 383, as the general Maximus Magnus sought…
What ancient Celtic wonders did the Romans encounter beyond the estuary of the Severn….?

Feb 26, 2024

buildings, religion

Arthur, Celtic myths, Christianity, Cotswolds, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, J.R.R. Tolkein, King Lear, Lludd Llaw Ereint, Lydney, Lydney Park, Mary Stewart, Merlin, Nennius, Nodens, novels, Nuada, R.E.M. Wheeler, Roman Britain, Severn bore, Severn Estuary, Shakespeare, temples, Wales

Before I go any further, let me say that the above image is more or less the first view I had back in the 1970s of the Romano-British temple of Nodens, at Lydney Park near the town of Lydney in Gloucestershire. The temple is on a hillfort site on a bluff where the River Severn…
Digging for Britain (series 11)

Feb 4, 2024

anniversaries, archaeology, art, battles, buildings, religion

Alice Roberts, bags, bath houses, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chedworth, defences, digging for Britain, docks, dodecahedrons, Domesday Book, Dorset, Dover, Enfield, evacuation, Exeter Cathedral, flint tools, forty hall, Gloucester, Grampians, gun emplacement, Henry V, Hereford, Imber, Kent, Leicester cathedral, Lincoln, Lowther Castle, Marshes, mosaic tiles, mudlarking, Norfolk, Northampton, norton disney, nunneries, Owain Glyn Dwr, Platonic solids, postern gates, pubs, Roman Britain, roundhouses, Scotland, Septimus Severus, shoes, Smallhythe, Snodhill Castle, Strathclyde, Syston, timber, Tintern Abbey, trade, Trellau Park, Wales, Waterloo, William II, WW2 defences, Wye

As another year dawns, it must be time for another series of Britain’s archeological highlights, divided into five regions. This time, it started in the north with Carlisle Cricket Club hosting a dig associated with the bathhouse of the emperor Septimius Severus, a particularly steep part of the Grampians and Lowther Castle, a site that…
A Roman mosiac found under …

Oct 6, 2023

archaeology, buildings, Science

Aldi, bath houses, Buckinghamshire, building sites, Oxford Archaeology, Roman Britain, Roman villa, Stony Stratford

… another Aldi site. This one is in Olney, Buckinghamshire, near Milton Keynes and was discovered by Oxford Archaeology. it is believed to be the remains of a villa and bath house.
A Roman Shrine Under Richard’s Resting Place

Aug 25, 2023

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, religion, travel

Bacchus, Leicester, Leicester cathedral, Roman Britain, Roman gods, Roman shrine, statuess

Back in the mid-90’s, I went on a jaunt to Leicester, visiting the old town, the statue of Richard III (then sited close to the river) and Leicester Cathedral, where I stopped for a moment to pay my respects near the floor plaque commemorating Richard (who, little did I know it then, was really only…
The “awkward mediaeval cities” (3) : St. Alban’s

Feb 17, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, religion, travel

battlefields, blue plaque, Boudicca, Colchester, destruction, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Eleanor Crosses, Elizabeth I, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Humphrey of Gloucester, Jean II, John Ball, London, Luton, martyrs, museums, Northampton, Oxford, Poitiers, Roman Britain, Roman theatre, Second Battle of St. Albans, Skipton Building Society, St. Alban, St. Albans, St. Albans Cathedral, Thameslink, Verulam Park, Verulamium Roman Museum, Victoria Street, Wars of the Roses, Watford Junction

Unlike Northampton and Oxford, St. Alban’s (City) is on the Thameslink network and also has a branch line to Watford Junction. Accommodation can be expensive but the less historic Luton is surprisingly convenient as a base, being about fourteen minutes away on the same line and costing about five pounds for a day return. Turning right…
Were the English, Welsh, Irish and Scots once all Celts…?

Nov 29, 2022

anniversaries, culture, genealogy, religion

“Tudor” propaganda, “Tudors”, American War of Independence, Anglo-Saxons, Ben Nevis, Brittany, Carrauntoohil, Celts, Merriam-Webster, mountains, Normans, Patrick Sims-Williams, Pilgrim Fathers, Roman Britain, Scafell Pike, Simon Jenkins, Snowdon, Times Literary Supplement

I haven’t read Sir Simon Jenkins’ book The Celts: A Sceptical History, and to be honest I don’t think I’m likely to. Like Jenkins, I too am half-Welsh and half-English, but I don’t fancy being descended from “sociable sailors”. What’s the old saying about sailors having a girl in every port? I should imagine…
The art that made us

Nov 8, 2022

anniversaries, art, battles, buildings, culture, humour, religion, Science, television reviews

Aphra Benn, Armada, Arts and Crafts, Barbara Hepworth, Battle of Hastings, Bayeux Tapestry, BBC2, Beowulf, Black Death, Bloomsbury Group, British Empire, Burns, Charles I, Colonel Blimp, Cool Britannia, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, David Threlfall, Death and the Gallant, Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth I, embroidery, English Civil War, Festival of Britain, First World War, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Geoffrey Chaucer, Great Fire of London, Hanif Kureishi, Harry Potter, Hogarth, Industrial Revolution, Jane Austen, Jarrow march, John Foxe, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Joshua Reynolds, Julian of Norwich, kitchen sink drama, Llancarfon, Margery Kempe, Mary Stuart, murals, Norman conquest, Oliver Cromwell, Phillip Larkin, Piers Plowman, poetry, pre-Raphaelites, Reformation, Restoration, Richard II, Roman Britain, Rubens, satire, Second World War, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir William Orpen, St. Cadoc’s church, St. Paul’s, stained glass, Stuarts, The art that made us, The Fighting Temeraire, The unknown soldier, Tracey Emin, Trainspotting, Turner, urbanisation, van Dyck, Walter Sickert, Welsh Bible, William Cobbett, William Morgan, William Shakespeare, Wilton Diptych, York Minster

This is another fascinating BBC2 series, illustrating English and British history through the evolution of our art. The eight one-hour episodes, narrated by David Threlfall (Men of the World), feature:The Roman and pre-Roman periods, Beowulf, the Norman conquest and the Bayeux Tapestry; The Black Death, Wilton Diptych, Piers Plowman, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich,…
More coins found in Suffolk

Sep 1, 2022

anniversaries, art, battles

Ashbocking Hoard, Carry On Cleo, coins, East Anglian Daily Times, George Ridgway, invasions, Julius Caesar, Kenneth Williams, metal detecting, Roman Britain, Suffolk

Gaius Julius Caesar (left) may not have spent much time in Britain during his invasions of 55-54 BC, but his troops and their followers left rather a lot of evidence. Here, the East Anglian Daily Times details a hoard found in Ashbocking during 2019, consisting of 180 silver denarii and provisionally valued at £65,000.
Leaks, thistles and crosses of all kinds….

Sep 9, 2021

anniversaries, battles, heraldry, religion

Acts of Union, Azincourt, Edward III, emblems, flags, Henry VII, Horatio Nelson, James VI/I, leek, Order of the Garter, parsimony, plumbers, Roman Britain, roses, shamrock, St. Edward the Confessor, St. George, thistle, Union Jack, Wars of the Roses

No, I haven’t made a boo-boo, the subject line of this article from Inside Wales Sport does indeed say “leaks”. A friend has wondered if this means Wales is a land in dire need of plumbers! This was a clear invitation to examine the rest of the article for further bloopers. I’ll start with England’s…