The Growth of Roman Towns

Before Claudius' invasion in AD 43, the people of Britain had tended to live chiefly in small settlements or isolated farms with the great hillforts as places of refuge in times of war. The chieftains or kings of the tribes may have lived within the hillforts or other fortified sites with the protection of bodyguards and the luxury of slaves. They would have lived in simple roundhouses with earthen floors and thatched roofs.

The first town built in Roman Britain was near the site of the tribal capital of the Belgae, Camulodunum (modern Colchester in Essex). It was a colonia, a town of the highest rank, populated by Roman citizens, mostly retired soldiers. By populating the new towns with Roman citizens the government could ensure loyalty to Rome within a particular area and encourage the spread of Roman ideas in the province.

The administration of the new towns would have been based on the system used in Rome. This consisted of a Senate or ordo of up to 100 members, usually known as decurions. These would normally be men who had already held some sort of political office, but in a new province they could be trustworthy members of the local tribal aristocracy. You needed to be fairly well off to be adecurion as you were expected to contribute to the construction of the baths and other public buildings in your town. The ordo was also responsible to the Procurator for tax collection. Every year four magistrates were elected for each town. Between them they were responsible for minor matters of justice, public works and public order. The magistrates had to swear by Jupiter, the deified Emperors and by whatever gods were worshipped locally.

Roman towns were very ordered and strictly planned. One of the first stages would be to set out two main roads that bisected each other, and then from these to create a series of rectangular spaces in which houses and public buildings could be constructed. The two main roads in the town were known as the Cardo Maximus and the Decumanus Maximus. In small towns, such as Kenchester in Herefordshire, strict planning did not take place to any great extent and instead one road ran through the centre of the town with smaller roads running off it.

Within the town layout, areas would have been set aside for public buildings, which were an important feature of Roman towns. These buildings were even more important in the provinces as they created a sense of unity, so that no matter where you went in the empire there was always something that was instantly recognisable as Roman. These public buildings included temples, basilicas, baths, and sometimes even amphitheatres where dramatic performances were staged. Unfortunately at Kenchester and Leintwardine we do not have much evidence for public buildings, although both appear to have had small bath complexes for the relaxation of the inhabitants.

Herefordshire appears to have had only one Roman town - Magna, modern Kenchester - which was a small market town at the junction of four Roman roads. Due to this lack of Roman urbanisation it is likely that life in Herefordshire during Roman occupation carried on very much as before. Herefordshire was an agricultural area and the majority of its inhabitants would have centred their life around their farms and smallholdings, with the hillforts of the Iron Age still playing an important role in society.

The Roman settlements of Ariconium (Weston under Penyard) and Bravonium (Leintwardine) are unusual for Roman Britain in that neither appears to have had an overly-planned street system and neither appears to have had the public buildings that were such an important part of Roman administration. Leintwardine does appear to have had a small bath complex at the south end of the town but this was most likely for the benefit of the Roman soldiers than for the romanisation of the natives. The two sites appear to have grown up for different reasons. Ariconium was in an area rich in iron deposits useful for weapons and coinage, but not perhaps the ideal situation for habitation, while Leintwardine appears to have been a military site that grew up along the line of the Roman road between two much more significant forts - Wroxeter in Shropshire and Caerleon in Monmouthshire. It was a small cog in a larger wheel of Roman border control.

[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2004]