Menu
 
Portfolio
 
Terms of Use
 

Letocetum is the ancient remains of a Roman settlement. It was an important military staging post and posting station near the junction of Watling Street, the Roman military road to North Wales, and Icknield (or Ryknild) Street (now the A38). The site is now within the parish of Wall, Staffordshire, England. It is owned and run by the National Trust, under the name Letocetum Roman Baths Site & Museum. The site is in the guardianship of English Heritage as Wall Roman Site.

 

The Romans came to Letocetum in 50 CE to establish a fortress during the early years of the invasion of Britain. The land could not support large numbers of soldiers and Letocetum, at an important crossroads, became a large scale posting station. The settlement developed with successive bathhouses and mansions built to serve the official travelers as well as the growing civilian population. It is known mainly from detailed excavations in 1912–13, which concentrated on the sites of the mansion and bath-house, but there is evidence of a substantial settlement with possible basilica, temples, and amphitheater.

 

The remains visible today are those of the stone bathhouse and mansion, built-in approximately 130 CE after Letocetum ceased to have a military function and became a civilian settlement. The settlement reached its peak during the 2nd and 3rd centuries and at this time occupied 8.1–12 hectares (20–30 acres). At the end of the 3rd century, the town relocated within high defensive walls astride Watling Street. After the Romans left early in the 5th century the settlement went into decline. The modern village of Wall emerged in the land once occupied by Letocetum.

 

Native settlement
It is likely that a small native settlement occupied the site before the advent of the Romans, possibly as the main trading station on the boundary between two British tribes, the Corieltauvi in the East Midlands whose later tribal center was at Ratae Corieltauvorum and the Cornovii to the west with their original capital Uriconon (which would later give its name to the important Roman British city of Viroconium) at the hill fort on The Wrekin. These tribes offered little resistance to Roman rule.

 

 

More posts..

Inverlochy Castle

Inverlochy Castle is a ruined, 13th-century castle near Inverlochy and Fort William, Highland, Scotland. The site of two battles, the castle remains largely unchanged since its construction.   Inverlochy Castle was built circa 1270–1280 by John “the Black” Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and Lochaber, and

Read More
Wistman’s Wood

Wistman’s Wood has been mentioned in writing for hundreds of years. It is likely to be a left-over from the ancient forest that covered much of Dartmoor c. 7000 BC before Mesolithic hunter/gatherers cleared it around 5000 BC. Photographic and other records show that Wistman’s

Read More
Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Castle sits beside Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. The castle is on the A82 road, 21 kilometers south-west of Inverness and 2 kilometers east of the village of Drumnadrochit.   The name Urquhart derives from the 7th-century form Airdchartdan, itself a mix

Read More
Castle Acre

Castle Acre Castle was built by William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey, in the manor of Acre during the 1070s. William was a Norman lord who had accompanied William the Conqueror in the conquest of England in 1066; he was rewarded with extensive estates

Read More
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
error: