With the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, Britain formally became part of the Roman Empire. In some aspects of daily existence, life continued much as it had before. But the Romans imposed changes and introduced some very different ideas. They created towns, together with stone and brick buildings, an Empire-wide coinage system and their own religious beliefs. They brought industrial- scale production of disposable items and trade on a scale not seen before. They also introduced their imperial political system. Their use of writing stimulated a new source of evidence valued by today’s historians and through this medium they have introduced us to the first named people who lived in the area.
The southern and eastern coastal counties of Britain had never been isolated from continental Europe and its influences. There had been contact with the Mediterranean world prior to the Roman invasion, as shown by objects and coins imported to Norfolk during the Iron Age. The world of Rome had established and maintained political influence and commercial ties with southern England.
The area occupied by the people referred to as the Iceni, with Norfolk at its heart, was not an initial priority for the Romans. It remained largely independent, with the status of a client state on the periphery, while the main conquest of Britain was being pursued. As a consequence, Norfolk’s Iron Age lasted some seventeen years longer than elsewhere in Britain. It finally came to a sudden and brutal end with the Boudican uprising in AD 60.
Once Norfolk was made part of the Roman province, it was to remain under imperial rule for a further 350 years. This should not, therefore, be considered as a single episode and was subject to changes and developments over that time. There was initially a degree of continuity of lifestyle and settlement from the preceding Iron Age. Across most of the area, and for much of the population, there was little change until the third and fourth centuries. While the local population remained stable, peoples also came in from other parts of the Empire through trade links and as auxiliaries in the army to protect our shores. In this way, some parts of the area became cosmopolitan.
Roman Norfolk has left a strong visible legacy on today’s landscape. Perhaps the most spectacular examples are in the east of the county, where substantial walls survive above the ground at both the Saxon Shore site of Burgh Castle, to the south of Great Yarmouth, and at the town of Venta Icenorum at Caistor St Edmund, south of Norwich. Other sites are still recognisable above ground to a varying extent. Some are visible and survive in other ways, through the reuse of their building materials. Churches in the vicinity of the late Roman sites at Brancaster in north Norfolk and Reedham in the east contain prolific quantities of building stone and tile from Roman buildings that have otherwise disappeared.
In the previous chapter it was observed that Late Iron Age society comprised a number of sub-regional groupings and that significant differences in terms of sites, monuments and wealth existed between the west and the east of the county. The same dichotomy was to continue through Roman Norfolk and was manifested in a number of ways.
At the outset of the Roman conquest, the area of Norfolk was on the periphery of the part of Britain considered to be of most strategic importance to the Romans. The Iceni of northern East Anglia entered into a treaty relationship with Rome, with the status of a ‘client kingdom’. Such an arrangement was not unique to the Iceni and ‘client kingdoms’ were often strategically positioned around the edges of Rome’s troublesome frontiers. In this way they retained Roman protection while maintaining a degree of independence.
The first reference we have to a leader of the Iceni is a coin carrying the name of Prasutagus. It is possible that this individual may have been raised to the status of tribal leader by the Romans, who needed an appropriate local person with whom they could conduct political relations. The coin was struck in silver and in the style of Roman coins of emperors Claudius and Nero who ruled at that time. Its Latin inscription reads, SVB RI PRASTO ESICO FECIT, which means ‘under King Prasutagus, Esico (the moneyer) made me’.
The wife of Prasutagus was Boudica, who has become one of the most famous characters from world history. On her husband’s death, Boudica became queen of the Iceni. We know tantalisingly little about her background. She would have been an important individual and can be considered an aristocrat within local society. Both she and Prasutagus must have shown themselves to be receptive to Roman culture and probably dressed and behaved in a way that reflected Roman fashions. The Roman historian Dio Cassius, writing in the late second, early third century, provided the following description of her:
She was very tall and severe.
Her gaze was penetrating and her voice was harsh.
She grew long red hair that fell to her hips
And wore a large golden torc
And a vast patterned cloak with a thick plaid fastened over it.
When Prasutagus died in AD 60, he attempted to bequeath half of his estate to his family rather than to the Roman Emperor. Catus Decianus, Procurator of Britain, was sent to the region to assert the authority of the Emperor. He committed outrages against the queen and her two daughters, setting in motion a train of events that led to the tribal uprising of AD 60–61.
Boudica led the Iceni from their Norfolk homeland, together with their allies, south to the Roman capital at Camulodunum. The town was razed to the ground and a statue of the Emperor Claudius demolished. Boudica’s army then proceeded to destroy the Roman towns at London and Verulamium (St Albans) before eventually being lured to battle and to defeat at a now-lost site, possibly near Mancetter in the Midlands.
By the time of Boudica the previously important sites of west Norfolk, such as Snettisham, had declined and there is more evidence of settlements developing further east. Sites in the Breckland at Saham Toney, Ashill and Thetford, in south Norfolk at Wicklewood and in east Norfolk, became more prominent. Archaeological discoveries, in the form of buried coin and metalwork hoards, suggest that the focus of Boudica’s uprising occurred in central-south Norfolk. One of these deposits from Crownthorpe, near Wymondham, provides direct evidence of one of Boudica’s supporters.
The Crownthorpe Hoard comprised seven bronze vessels and had been deliberately hidden. It contained a bowl and saucepan, both imported from Italy, together with other vessels and two delightful drinking cups, together representing a drinking set of the type commonly used within a Roman household. These vessels show that the owner had adopted Roman ways. If the owner had buried his treasure while fleeing Boudica’s anti-Roman rebels, intent on revenge against those showing pro-Roman sympathies, he was presumably caught and did not survive to recover his possessions.
The Boudican episode provides a fascinating insight into the emerging Roman province of Britain. Writing about the events, the Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio provide historical information for a period that otherwise relies heavily on archaeology. If we look at the episode in its wider context, it is interesting to note that the manifestation of a patriotic tribal chieftain, at a key moment in history, is not unique to Britain. Such charismatic leaders are known in every other part of the Roman Empire, emerging when their homeland was initially threatened by Roman aggression. Others include Jugurtha in Numidia (Libya), Ambiorix in Belgium, Dumnorix and Vercingetorix in France, Viriathus in Portugal and Arminius in Germany, to name but a few. In England, Boudica’s name has lived on as a patriotic rallying point throughout the centuries. Today, her name has even become a highly popular marketing brand, especially across the east of England.
The Romans spent the immediate post-conquest years strengthening their control of Britain. In Norfolk, they erected garrison forts at strategic intervals across the countryside. Woodcock Hall, at Saham Toney in Breckland, was an early fort of the Claudian period (41–54) constructed on a bluff, south of the River Blackwater. A second fort close by at Threxton was probably constructed in the aftermath of the Boudican uprising. Another potential early fort has been identified nearby at Ashill, north-west of Saham Toney.
Aerial photography has revealed the location of an early fort at Swanton Morley, again in Breckland, next to the Romano-British small town of Billingford. The characteristic ‘playing card’ shape was clearly outlined, as was a defensive triple-ditch system, which has also been associated with several forts of this date across East Anglia.
A large cropmark enclosure has been identified west of Horstead, north of Norwich. Its size suggests that a detachment of legionary size could have used it, possibly as a temporary marching camp. It is likely that a very substantial force of this type would have been involved in pacifying the area following the Boudican troubles. Another marching camp has been discovered at Barton Bendish. Ditches indicate another possible installation to the north of Norwich at Scottow, while pieces of Roman military equipment have been found at the sites of Great Walsingham, Gallows Hill in Thetford, Scole and Caistor St Edmund.
Some other finds, especially early Roman coin types normally associated with the army, have more coastally associated findspots. These may indicate military movements in the area in the aftermath of the rebellion. Landings between Burgh Castle in the east and Heacham in the west may have served to supply and reinforce troops advancing north overland.
At this time, parts of the northern coastline between Holme-next-the-Sea and Happisburgh lay to the north of its present position. The period saw both marine transgressions and recessions, the latter enabling people to move west into the Fenland. The east, where Great Yarmouth now stands, was still open water and the landscape was dominated by the Great Estuary that extended some 20km inland, fed by rivers that included the Yare, Bure and Waveney. To the north, the region of Flegg was a large island and, to the south, Lothingland formed a long peninsula. The estuary and its rivers were an attractive focus to the Romans for local and long-distance trade.
The Romans themselves also made an impression on the physical landscape during the later first and second centuries. They appear to have imposed an alignment of features including lengths of Roman road, lanes, agricultural trackways and some field boundaries, which were set out in a grand formal design. Together, they appear to form a large-scale formal layout established in the aftermath of the Roman conquest.
An immediate consequence of the Boudican rebellion was a depopulation of the region. We are told by Tacitus that the scale of local casualties was very high and a great many agricultural workers were lost, either killed during the battles or subsequently taken away as slaves. It would have taken decades for the population to return to its former levels. Life in the countryside was drastically affected and its inhabitants struggled to recover, possibly through into the second century.
The situation in the far west of Norfolk was quite different. A large imperial estate was established early on across part of the Fenland, extending from Denver in the south west, and westwards through Lincolnshire. It was administered from the period of Hadrian (117–38) from a site in the central Fenland, probably at Stonea (Cambridgeshire). Many of the sites of the Norfolk fen-edge would have come under its control, sharing an economy based on intensive stock rearing and wool production.
One of the most significant changes under the Romans was the introduction of towns. The new administration needed a regional centre for government, which was established at Caistor St Edmund, just south of where Norwich later grew up. The chosen location had been a focus of settlement from Neolithic times through to the Iron Age. It had natural advantages, situated just off of the adjacent clay soils and next to the River Tas. This location facilitated both land transport and river links to eastern coastal ports.
The initial street layout has been dated to the Flavian period (69–96). Known as Venta Icenorum, this was the largest town in northern East Anglia and served as the regional civitas capital. During the last quarter of the fourth century it was reduced in size by about a half, to 14 hectares (35 acres) by the construction of a massive defensive flint wall.
Venta was, however, a modest town by Roman standards. It was smaller than other Romano-British regional capitals; only about half the size of Roman Colchester. It lacks evidence for major investment in its Roman-style public buildings. Neither was it rich in material terms. Roman imported items, such as wine amphorae and Samian Ware pottery, which are common elsewhere in Britain, are rare finds at the site. Industrial activity too was modest and the town layout included many open spaces without buildings.
The evidence from Venta Icenorum is consistent with the situation in Late Iron Age Norfolk, whereby the local population were reluctant to adopt Roman ways of doing things. It suggests that the Iceni were still choosing to reject the imposed Roman lifestyle, or at least accepting it half-heartedly. They preferred to express their own identity wherever possible and to maintain their own distinct way of life. Resistance to the standard model of romanisation would have been even more important to them in the aftermath of their bitter defeat in AD 61.
Elsewhere, the post-conquest years saw the growth of a network of Romano-British small towns across Norfolk. These medium-sized settlements are found at regular intervals of between 15 and 20km and were generally situated at route centres. They provided a whole range of functions that facilitated the working of Roman Norfolk. A number, including Crownthorpe, Needham, Ditchingham and Great Walsingham, show evidence of earlier occupation, during the Late Iron Age, in the form of coins and other objects. These settlements are mainly located in the east and south-east.
The lack of native building stone can be apparent in the remains of these settlements. At Great Walsingham, extensive spreads of tiles used on roofs and heating ducts betray the existence of buildings, the walls of which had been made from timber and other organic materials that have not survived.
To the north of Venta Icenorum was the small town of Brampton, which grew up at a crossroads and river crossing. An industrial suburb developed and Brampton became a major producer of pottery, with over 140 kilns. These supplied a local market as well as a more distant one. Brampton products have been found as far afield as the Antonine Wall, near Edinburgh.
Venta Icenorum appears to have provided a market focus in the east of Norfolk but there is a noticeable difference in the west, where there is an absence of small towns. In the south-west, there is a single small town at Denver, in the vicinity of where the Imperial Estate would have been located. Denver lacked development seen elsewhere, which may have been because the normal town functions were provided by the estate and its administration. The economic structure in the west clearly differed from that evidenced in the rest of Norfolk and appears to have been specifically based on large-scale farming operations, centred in the nearby Fenland and on the villas in the later period.
In many parts there was initially very little change in the lifestyle from that of the Iron Age; the landscape covered by a network of small farms. The economy was based on small basic rural settlements such as that excavated at Spong Hill in North Elmham and continued as before.
In the west, a system of individual settlement plots and allotments has been identified at Park Farm, Snettisham, through a dense system of cropmarks, which can be traced for over 3km. These settlements had grown up before the end of the first century AD on either side of the River Ingol. There was a noticeable decline in activity there during the third century.
Further south, the southern fen-edge experienced an expansion of settlement as the Roman period progressed. An extensive rural settlement has been investigated at Watlington, associated with stock rearing and agriculture. This appears to have been a ‘low order’ settlement, representing activity over a period of some 400 years. It expanded during the later second and third centuries, when a regular field system was also established.
One of the most widespread and visible legacies of the Roman occupation is the network of roads. In the years after the invasion the Romans strengthened their control and constructed roads in order to speed up movements of troops, supplies and communications, to and from other parts of the province. The network was largely established in the half century between the conquest and the end of the first century.
Evidence for Roman roads in Norfolk is contained in the Roman document known as the Antonine Itinerary, which outlines journeys planned by the Emperor Caracalla (AD 211–217). Route IX describes a road from Venta Icenorum to London. Route V runs from London to Cambridge, and mentions the Norfolk sites of Villa Faustini (thought to be Scole) and Venta Icenorum.
Venta Icenorum formed the hub of the road system in the east, as well as being at the centre of a network of river routes stretching east to the Great Estuary and the sea beyond. The movement of goods by road was slow and expensive, while water transport through the extensive network of rivers and long coastline was quicker, much more efficient and also safer. The Great Estuary allowed maritime transport to penetrate far inland by medium-sized boats and barges. Venta Icenorum acted as a redistribution centre, where goods were transferred from barges to land transport.
The Fen Causeway ran directly west from Venta, passing through Crownthorpe, Threxton and Denver, and is still visible across the landscape as a band of orange gravel in places. In central-west Norfolk, the Peddars Way ran north from Bildeston in Suffolk, cutting through Breckland and passing through Threxton towards Holme-next-the-Sea, in the extreme north-west. It is thought that this must have been a ferry point for vessels, perhaps of military origin, to cross the Wash into Lincolnshire.
Religion played an important role, permeating all aspects of everyday life, just as it had in the Iron Age. The Romans were polytheist, with a range of their own gods and goddesses. They did not attempt to convert the conquered population to their religion. Instead, they pursued a policy of religious tolerance that helped the integration between themselves and the people of the area. In time, local Celtic gods became associated with their Roman counterparts, becoming combined into a ‘Romano-Celtic’ religion.
A range of objects of the period associated with religious practices have been found right across Norfolk with widespread evidence for worship of the major Roman state gods, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Other Roman gods such as Mars and Mercury are similarly well represented.
A number of Iron Age sites associated with religious or ritual behaviour continued to have a similar function into the Roman period, such as Ken Hill, Snettisham. Romano-British temples have been found at Caistor St Edmund, Crownthorpe, Great Walsingham and Hockwold-cum-Wilton, all of which were towns. Temple sites would have attracted people from wide areas and also served as the focus of periodic fairs and festivals, as well as the locations for markets and commercial activity. These religious practices once again manifest sub-regional differences.
The material evidence is able to show that different cults existed across parts of Norfolk. For example, cult objects linked with the deities Pan, Faunus and Bacchus cover much of Norfolk, but with the notable exception of the far west and Fenland. In contrast, cult figurines depicting a raven are clustered in north-east Norfolk. It has also been shown that a particular zoomorphic form of brooch, known as the ‘horse and rider’, is often found in association with Norfolk’s temples.
Two objects found in the county give us an insight into how people thought about the gods at this time. Both are metal items and were engraved by individuals as direct communications with the gods. The first is a lead curse tablet, known as a defixio, which was found on the bank of the River Tas, at Caistor St Edmund. This had been tightly rolled up and dedicated to the God Neptune. Unrolled, it shows an inscription on one side. It requests the help of Neptune to seek out a thief and recover a list of stolen items that include a wreath, bracelets, a cap, a mirror, a headdress, a pair of leggings and ten pewter vessels. Unfortunately, the name of the writer has not been recorded.
The second object is known as a lamella; a very rare form of amulet made from a thin sheet of metal, which was worn as a charm against evil. Magical protective spells were written on one side and it was then rolled up to contain the magic and worn around the neck. This example was found at Billingford in central Norfolk and is only the fourth such gold example ever to be recorded from Roman Britain. It is made from a gold sheet and has been lightly inscribed with writing in a mixture of Greek and Latin characters and magic symbols. The writer signed himself ‘Tiberius Claudius Similis, son of Herennia Marcellina’. Similis has used the charm to call on the protection of Abrasax, who was an eastern deity, often depicted as having the head of a cockerel and with snakes for legs. Such charms indicate the presence of small immigrant communities in Roman Britain. It is thought that Similis was not British by birth and that he may have originated from Lower Germany.
Somewhat surprisingly, there is a lack of evidence for Christianity having been practiced in Roman Norfolk. This situation can be contrasted with that in adjacent Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, where numerous finds of early Christian association have been made.
The Romans brought with them a mature coinage system that operated across the whole Mediterranean world. Coin use remained slight in the British countryside for many years after the invasion, probably until the second half of the third century. The new coinage served to stimulate and facilitate commerce in some specific locations such as towns, markets and fairs.
The economy of Roman Norfolk was largely agricultural and was geared towards food production. The extensive coastline also supported a fishing industry. Evidence for a range of other industries has come from archaeological excavations. Digs at the small towns of Scole and Brampton have revealed evidence of industrial activities, including iron and bronze working, leatherworking, tanning and malting. Pottery was manufactured right across the area, with wares for both local use and for export to other parts of Britain.
Evidence of other more specialist craft activities have also been discovered. Glass was produced at Venta Icenorum and iron smelting was undertaken at Ashwicken, Hevingham, Aylsham and other sites along the Holt–Cromer ridge. The materials of a jeweller’s workshop were found at Snettisham.
In the west, there is evidence for manufacturing on a large scale being focused in the area of the Nar Valley, including pottery production and iron smelting. Here, activity developed across the eastern offshoot of the Fenland basin, some 5km south of King’s Lynn. This industrial focus, which provided products and services for a wide area, is quite different from anything known in the east of Norfolk. As yet, investigation into this fascinating area is only at an early stage.
The later centuries of Roman rule are associated with new developments. Sea levels fell and a sandbank started to emerge at the mouth of the Great Estuary, where Great Yarmouth now stands, although there was no stable land for settlement there at that time. The main period of villa construction was during the third and fourth centuries. Many of Norfolk’s earlier smallholdings can be seen to have developed into larger and more profitable farms. However, Norfolk was not rich in these country houses, especially those manifesting signs of great wealth or ostentation in design. It was in the west that the main focus of villa construction occurred, with a bigger concentration of substantial Roman rural buildings in north-west Norfolk than in any other part of the county. Villa owners favoured slopes overlooking valleys at Hunstanton, Heacham and Snettisham. There is a chain of ten villas situated between Gayton Thorpe and Heacham, close to the Icknield Way. At Park Farm, Snettisham, a villa estate grew up and replaced the previous farming system of smaller settlement plots.
Although they have been subject to very little excavation, the floruit of these grand country houses appears to have been in the third and early fourth centuries. They all show a modest amount of luxury, less so than across much of southern Britain, and appear to have been located at the centres of individual agricultural estates. Each of these would probably have farmed several thousand acres.
It was during the final century and a half of Roman rule that large walled sites were constructed around the east coast and further inland. The coastal sites are associated with the defensive system known as the Saxon Shore. This chain of forts and signal stations, built during the later third and fourth centuries AD, stretched from Portchester in Hampshire eastwards and northwards, to embrace Norfolk, whose sites include Burgh Castle, Caister-on-Sea and Brancaster. Another might have existed at Reedham, as evidenced by the prolific Roman building materials left behind, although no intact remains survive above ground today. Inland, the walls of Venta Icenorum were also built at this time, towards the end of the third century.
The construction of all these massive flint and stone sites involved organisation of labour on a large scale. This in turn indicates the presence, or injection, of significant wealth and financial investment into the region during the third and fourth centuries. All of these sites, except for Brancaster, are concentrated in the east of the county.
The importance of continental trade into the Great Estuary continued right through to the final decades of Roman Norfolk. Fragments of imported exotic glass vessels, including examples from nearby Gallia Belgica (Belgium) and more distant Egypt, have been found. Although there is no surviving evidence for a Roman port in western Norfolk, there would have been a need for such a facility in the vicinity of the Wash through which agricultural production from that area would have needed to be exported.
A late third-century document written to the Emperor Constantius (AD 305–06) talks of Britain’s benefits to the Empire as having been the production of cereals of all kinds and that it was well provided with harbours. This brief description provides a simple summary of Roman Norfolk’s importance within Roman Britain, which was perhaps greater than has previously been appreciated. Evidence from across the county shows how Roman Norfolk was geared toward agricultural production, while the important trade routes out of east Norfolk, via the Great Estuary, and from western Norfolk, via the Wash, were in direct proximity to the major trade routes associated with the Rhine mouth and its vicinity.
There is in fact evidence for a great concentration of wealth in northern East Anglia in the final decades of Roman Britain. Remarkable discoveries of treasure have been made across the region over the last eighty years. In 1942 a hoard of late Roman silver objects was found on the fen-edge at Mildenhall, Suffolk. Three decades later a hoard of early Christian gold and silver objects was found at Water Newton, Cambridgeshire. In 1979 a deposit of gold finger rings, silver objects, beads and gems was discovered at Thetford. In 1992 an even more spectacular find was made at Hoxne in north Suffolk. The Hoxne Treasure was the largest hoard of gold and silver ever found on British soil.
These rich deposits all tend to be found on and around the borders of Norfolk. They represent accumulations of precious metals and fine objects, including items of exceptionally high-quality workmanship. The final decades of the fourth and early fifth centuries were troubled times, for there was a climate of political uncertainty as the Roman army was being withdrawn from Britain to defend the central Empire on mainland Europe. Some rich people were burying their wealth in the ground for safekeeping, as Roman administration was breaking down.
In most respects, it must be concluded that the area of Norfolk was not at all remarkable during the Roman period. Its largest town, at Caistor St Edmund, was much smaller than other towns of the south and east of England, such as Lincoln, Leicester and Colchester. Venta Icenorum can be characterised as a microcosm of Roman Norfolk, lacking rich Mediterranean imports, with an absence of fine mosaics and other daily comforts. In the later period, Norfolk lacked the numbers of rich villas found elsewhere across lowland Britain. Roman Norfolk’s material culture, which is noteworthy in its quantity, comprises largely ordinary domestic everyday items and in general terms lacks richness or high quality.
The late Roman treasure deposits, found around the county’s borders, present a puzzling anomaly. Roman Norfolk was not otherwise showing visible signs of wealth, although the ability to undertake a building programme involving the construction of walls around key sites shows that wealth was present in the vicinity. Undoubtedly, the region’s agriculture and population had recovered following their mid-first century decline and participated in the substantial export of produce, especially via the Great Estuary. Agriculture and the Roman countryside always played a fundamental role in relation to both Roman politics and the Roman economy and the possession of land equated to social standing and wealth. Norfolk’s rural assets, its position as a borderland and its great eastern waterway, were significant local factors. It must be inferred that some very wealthy families of landowners lived in the region, although evidence for their presence remains to be found.
The end of Roman presence in Britain has been dated to 410, when the Emperor Honorius (393–423) withdrew the last remnants of the army. Saxon raids were already gathering pace. They were arriving in the east of England in increasing numbers, not just as raiders but as invaders and settlers.