Places to go to explore Roman Britain

Welcome to Tea Time History Chat Live on the British History channel with me, Philippa Lacey Brewell.

Today I am going to tell you about 5 of my favourite Roman places to visit in Britain outside of London: a legion fortress in Wales, the fourth largest Roman city in Britain, a Palace, a Temple and a luxury Roman villa. 

You can watch this episode on Youtube.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of Roman sites in Britain but if you enjoy today then maybe I can do a follow on episode. For instance I’m not covering Hadrian’s wall in today’s show, despite it being an incredible place, and George R R Martin’s inspiration for The Wall, which appears in the first book ‘A Game of Thrones’ of his famous ‘A song of Fire and Ice’ series, of course subsequently made into the Game of Thrones HBO series. 

Or Portchester Castle, a Roman Saxon Shore Fort which is said to be the best preserved north of the Alps and where, in the 12th century a Castle was built within its walls but in the interim Anglo Saxon period it is thought to have been occupied by a high status family. 

Or indeed, Chester with its Roman Walls and remains of its amphitheatre in what is still a bustling town with many medieval buildings remaining. There’s also Cirencester, St Albans, Gloucester, the list actually goes on.

There is a link in the names of those places: Chester means a camp of soldiers and is as a suffix to place names in the form of -chester, -caster and -cester, for example Manchester, Lancaster, Gloucester, and when you know that you start to realised how many Roman settlements there were.

Last week I talked about Roman London and some of the incredible remains you can still see today, so if you missed that please check it out. It is available, as are all these shows, on the British History Youtube channel and the British History Podcast.