Richard Dunmore looks at:

The Roman Occupation

The geography of any region played an important role in the process of settlement and this applied around Appleby and the surrounding area as elsewhere.  Peter Foss has argued convincingly that West Leicestershire and the neighbourhood immediately to the west should be regarded as a settlement region quite distinct from the region around Leicester in the Soar valley.  Ancient peoples settled West Leicestershire from the river valleys, so the valleys of the Tame, Anker, Sence and Mease, which ultimately drain to the Trent, formed a settlement region in an arc around Tamworth.  The tribe which came to occupy the Tame valley were known as the Tomsaete from which Tamworth derives its name.  This region was self-contained, surrounded by the upland forested areas of Cannock and Needwood to the west, Arden to the south and the high ground of central Leicestershire (Leicester Forest) to the east, areas which provided seasonal movement for domestic animals.  He suggests that, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, these wooded upland areas also acted as tribal territorial boundaries.  This, then, is the background to the occupation by the Romans, which lasted for almost 400 years from before 50 AD until their withdrawal early in the 5th century.

When the Romans arrived with their powerful army, they superimposed a sophisticated system of communications and farming on the tribal region of the Tomsaete.  They positioned military posts on Watling Street at Mancetter (Manduessedum near Atherstone) near the territorial boundary with the Leicester tribe, the Corieltauvi; and at Wall (Letocetum near Lichfield) near the boundary of the Cornovii.  Their advanced farming economy contrasted sharply with the primitive subsistence farming practised by the British tribes.  The region quickly declined in military importance, although the Romans must have retained control, and the Romans and the British then co-existed more or less peaceably.

Foss’s own particular interest is a sub-region around Market Bosworth within the drainage system of the River Sence and he discusses the evidence for prehistoric occupation of the area bounded by the forested land to the east and north.  A Roman villa or farm was established in this tribal sub-region near Bosworth, providing agricultural support for the military station at Mancetter.

Of interest to us, the Mease valley may have formed another sub-region of the Tomsaete tribe, with a Roman villa and farm on the south side of valley near Stretton en le Field.  This has rich agricultural land and an apparently Roman place-name.  The eagerly awaited report on the late-Roman finds at the new Appleby motel site (SK308 101) may shed some light on the question.

Stretton’s name (Street-tun) is a strong indication that there was a Roman Road through the area.  As I mentioned in the first article, the location of this Roman Road is a puzzle, but one which may yet be solved.  Within the last few years archaeological evidence has emerged at Bath Lane, Moira proving the existence of a Roman Road, known by local tradition as the Leicester Headland, which ran from Rycknild Street south-west of Burton to Leicester.  This passed through Linton, Moira, Willesley and Normanton le Heath, and south-eastwards towards Leicester.  It appears to be part of the conjectural Via Devana running from Colchester to Chester and known south-east of Leicester as the Gartree Road.  So we should not give up hope that Stretton’s street will also be found.

What evidence do we have of early roads around Appleby?  Early county maps do not show roads and no detailed map of the parish is known to survive from the enclosures of 1772, let alone earlier.  However, inventories of church land known as Glebe Terriers mention roads or ways in describing the location of particular strips of land.  Nichols lists an early glebe terrier for Appleby which is thought to date from the 15th century and another detailed terrier exists for 1638.

Dullocks Meadow can be identified as a ‘modern’ field name for an area of land immediately opposite Little Wigston, close to the old crossing of the Tamworth and Burton roads.  Golden Way was the old name for Rectory Lane.  It is clear therefore that these entries are referring to the same open field and that both the Burton Road and the Tamworth Road - the ‘high way’ over the heath - already existed in those times.  The two roads must have passed through Appleby parish on or near their present lines long before these routes were turnpiked in 1760.

My speculative Roman route can also be projected north-eastwards down the flank of Bird’s Hill, the later turnpike veering away towards Measham.  After crossing the Mease, the line picks up the parish boundary between Measham and Oakthorpe which leads to Willesley and the Leicester Headland.  Beyond that it may have passed through Ashby and over the Pistern Hills into the Trent basin.  It is of note that Money Hill is the site of a Roman coin hoard, at SK 361 178, and that features suggesting a Roman settlement have been found recently on the proposed Ashby by-pass route near Old Parks House, SK 360 188.

There is only one boundary line on this northern part of the route before it reaches the River Trent, but it does appear to be very significant.  The county boundary between Leicestershire and Derbyshire runs SW - NE through the village of Wilson for about 2½miles.  Despite the undulating terrain, this line is remarkable straight, much of it following the lanes either side of Wilson, and it points directly to the Trent crossing at King’s Mills, SK 417 274, near Donington Hall.  The boundary through Wilson was clearly aligned with a feature on the ground such as an existing road.  Remains of a second century AD Roman settlement were found very close to this line in 1969, at SK 393 222, but further evidence is needed for the whole route.

The point of speculating about the Roman street is that, when the Romans were farming in the Mease valley, a road system would have been a prerequisite for control of and access to the area.  The geographical position of No Mans Heath on the low western shoulder of the Appleby Hill ridge seems crucial and its location was used later to define land areas.  It lies at a natural crossing point of the watershed between the valleys of the Anker and the Mease and is the focus of roads and tracks from nine directions, as well as for boundaries, both parish and county.  The Roman road must surely have come through the gap in the hill at No Mans Heath.

Sources and Notes

Nichols = J. Nichols, History & Antiquities of Leicestershire, Vol. IV, part 2, 1811 

TLAHS = Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society 

Peter Foss, ‘Market Bosworth and its Region’ in Anglo-Saxon Landscapes in the East Midlands, ed. Jill Bourne, Leicestershire Museums Arts and Records Service, 1996.  The Corieltauvi have also been known as the Coritani, as in the accepted Roman name for Leicester: Ratae Coritanorum

E Mammatt, Geographical Facts of the Ashby Coalfield, Lumley, 1836, p.9 (Leicester Headland)

P Liddle & R F Hartley, ‘A Roman road through north-west Leicestershire’, TLAHS, LXVII, 1993, p.186 (Leicester Headland)

J Browning reported the archaeological evidence found at Moira Baths for the Leicester Headland, TLAHS, Vol. 73, 1999, pp 84-85.

R Millward, A History of Leicestershire and Rutland, Phillimore, 1985, pp 21 (Roman incursion) and pp.22-23 (Gartree Road)

Glebe Terriers: earliest (15th century*) quoted by Nichols op.cit., p.438; and 21 April 1638 (at the Leicestershire Record Office).  *Alan Roberts researching for his PhD in 1978 acquired this information from the Royal Commission on Historic Manuscripts.  I am also indebted to him for transcribing the 1638 terrier.

William Albert, The Turnpike Road System in England, Cambridge University Press, 1972, pp 201-223, Appendix B ‘The Turnpike Acts 1663-1836’ includes 33 Geo. II (1760) Tamworth to Ashby.

The Roman Hoard at Money Hill is marked on Pathfinder OS Map (1:25 000)  SK 21/31