More Roman history

Jules takes me to the best places, exploring the close by and far away in UK terms. Not quite the same as in Aussie terms with the traffic making many short journeys a long term adventure, dodging the parking spots on highways, heading down very narrow lanes through bucolic countryside, stopping for a quiet one at a country pub and enjoying the lovely old homes along the way all part of the adventure. 

Our Sunday drive took us to nearby Silchester and the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, an historically important town for over 400 years. The site was originally settled in the Iron Age and the Roman's resettled there in the first century BC prior to the major Roman settlement of England. Unlike similar settlements in places like Turkey and Jordan, there is very little left of Calleva Atrebatum, just the flint and mortar filling from inside the wall. 

We had quite a discussion about that and came to a few possible conclusions. The building materials were very different. There was not easy access to marble or granite columns and large blocks of stone, more likely flint and clay and whatever stones the region had locally were the best materials available. The weather is very different, a wetter and harsher climate than the Middle East so preservation may have been more difficult. The settlements may not have been intended to be permanent, quite likely intended as stopping places for the Roman army rather than the prosperous towns they became. The local folks may have reused the materials to build new structures and strengthen old ones, as we do today when materials are already at hand. I've done no research on this, just some Sunday surmises about peoples long gone who left their mark on the land, the language and the culture of this place.

We wandered along the pathways, something I love to do here, and climbed up onto the wall enjoying the view and the sunshine. It was a beautiful day here on Sunday. The walk around the area where the town was is about 2.5ks. As always there was a lovely village church along the way. St Mary the Virgin Church has been dated back to the early 12th century and is sited just outside the walls of the Roman town. The layout and size of St Mary's suggest it may have been built atop a square Romano-Celtic temple, probably in an area of the Roman city already set aside for religious buildings. 

I love to wander in old churches, not just because they are old, more because they all have stories. Stories of the people interred or honored there, of the community in which they once lived and the lives they led. One visible story here is of Eleanor Baynard, daughter of Sir John Bluet (d. 1306), lord of Silchester manor. Eleanor's effigy is an example of mid to late 14th-century workmanship, in what is known as the Westminster School style. I'm not sure if Eleanor is interred there as the writing on the effigy and surrounding floor slates was faint. Thanks for the info Britain Express, the link to their site is above. 

I've always loved history, and herstory too of course. The places I travel have inadvertently led me to exploring Roman history in many countries. Having read widely about Roman/Saxon/Norman history in the UK, and visiting many sites here, I'm adding to my understanding of how peoples settled new lands. A cycle repeating itself throughout history as we travel and find treasures, in whatever guise they come to us. I'm always learning and keen to know more and would love to join a dig exploring the hidden histories one day soon. 

There are some ghosts in the pics below, not real one but ones where my lens cover broke and caused some interesting refractions. I suspect it broke in Antalya that day I got lost and hot and flustered and dropped my phone. 

The town map

Part of the original wall 

St Mary's Church

Eleanor