A View of Roman History

[otherclive]

When I was at senior school in Leicester I was a member of the Local History Society, and joined trips out to visit local historical sites. I had a fascination with Roman history within Leicester and the county, and some trips involved exploring lengths of the old Roman road The Fosse Way. Strangely enough when we moved to Wiltshire I became reacquainted with that route because as I sometimes flew in to RAF Lyneham I could see a straight line of hedgerows to the north and south. I also took the off roader out on to the accessible sections too. After 2000 years I find it incredible that the line of The Fosse Way is still so recognisable. The photo below shows part of its line as the straight line in the middle of the photo. It is from Google Earth and still can be discerned along sizeable parts of its route from Exeter to Lincoln. (Anorak or what?)

 

[Ukdave2002]

I grew up in the Roman fortress town of Deva, now called Chester, so Roman stuff including the walls round the city, the Amphitheatre were just normal things! The roman road between Londinium ( London) and Deva is broadly where the current A5 runs.

At the time my dad worked for BT and was responsible for External Planning in Chester & North Wales, he was an amateur archaeologist and loved all things roman, many times BT would have to excavate in or around Chester and would discover some form of Roman artifact, which would delay things for BT whilst it was investigated and documented, dad had to do the BT official thing , trying to get the works speeded up, whilst unofficially he loved "the dig" so never pushed too hard!

 

[Hutch]

I must have missed this thread, living in RMK, Rural Milton Keynes, Woburn Sands, the local forest ./ Woodlands, have a very interesting history, from early days, 1066 and all that, Roman times, etc,
Where our Concrete cows are, there is a mosaic where a Roman villa was. The A5 has lots of Roman areas.,

With all the New HS2 there will be lots of new findings.

 

[Gafferbill]

Stane Street the Roman Road from Chichester to London is well preserved with some sections in open countryside, more or less as the Romans left it.
Other sections are in use as modern roads such as the A29.
Near to the road are well excavated Roman Villas such as at Fishbourne and Bignor.
All can be visited.

 

[Buckman]

We love visiting Roman ruins as find them very interesting and in particular enjoyed visiting the one in Bath even though it was very crowded. What we don't like the exceptionally high charges to enter these areas.

We do understand that there are ongoing maintenance programs to preserve these relics from the past, but even as a couple the prices can be eye watering. Our daughter and family would like to visit these sites, but as a family they cannot afford the visit.

 

[Hutch]

It is like that almost everywhere, unfortunately the cost of the upkeep of museums, and other places to keep the items from years gone by.
We have Dunstable Downs near us, which we can I am told, view 6 counties, but to park your car for an hour costs almost £5. Because it is now owned by National Trust.
Dunstable Downs
A very nice CL site not far from a very nice pub. Close to Whipsnade Zoo

Merlin.

 

[IanB1485]

Having done some work at Headstone Manor and Museum in Harrow I was amazed on the number of items not on view to the public , which are kept in carefully environmentally controlled rooms , far more than are on view at any one time , I've heard of a similar thing at the British Museum . The items are all cataloged and carefully stored, which takes up a lot of space they are also made available to other historians/archeologists . So I can understand the relative high entrance prices, Try taking 2 adults and six children(grand) to the theatre or a cinema, not much change from £200 for the day out.