ROMAN MANCETTER CBA West Midlands Summer Field Day in conjunction with Atherstone Civic Society An introduction to the day from Margaret Hughes, ACS committee member ROMANCETTER No, that s not a typo, it s deliberate. It started as a typo, as I ve so many times gone to type Roman Mancetter, and have found my fingers somehow eliding it, taking control, and typing RoMancetter. So much so I ve come to think it s not a bad name for this entity, this Roman Mancetter of ours that is so in need of an enhanced profile, of wider recognition. I even like the suggestion of romance that it throws up: the romance of discovering what lies hidden beneath our feet as we walk the area, because those finds, those fascinating artefacts thrown up by the plough or unearthed by our trowels, speak of the people who walked here before us, the long column thro the ages of former Mancetter dwellers who precede us. You ll have realised by now, perhaps, that I m the hypothesis guy, I m the speculative starter before you meet the knowledge guys, before you have Mike Hodder and Peter Thompson and Jane Evans to talk about the facts relating to what has been excavated, to talk about actual finds and what they mean. So today I ll do no more than simply touch on the hypothesis of Mancetter s claim to be the site of Boudica s last battle, because today s not about that. 1
IMAGE OF BOUDICA Boudica +Iron Age Chariot from Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen Richard Hingley & Christina Unwin 2005 Bloomsbury But I urge you to look at the wall display here in the hall today, which sets out the evidence for the claim, and pick up on the ACS Boudica conference of June 2013, which examined a range of candidate sites for the battle, from which comparison Mancetter stands up very well. I m a crossword fan, and I expect you ll know that feeling you have when a crossword clue just fits; all the interlocking clues can lead to no other answer. 2
CROSSWORD Here s one I made earlier...don t look for any cunning significance in the words...it s just a bit of cosmetic background... F A B O U D I C A R S T R I B U T E I X M A N C E T T E R O Y N But I do draw a connection between that sense of knowledge when a crossword solution fits, and a sense that the answer to the question Was it in Mancetter? may just be Yes However, I used the phrase earlier about what lies under our feet...hidden away. It remains a fact that there is little of RoMancetter remaining above ground. Mancetter suffers from not having any Roman remains in situ really clearly visible above ground; nothing spectacular to which to direct visitors. 3
HADRIAN S WALL There s no Hadrian s Wall...no grand sweep of stonework... FISHBOURNE There s no visible opulently rich artwork, laid out as a mosaic floor 4
BATH There s no fancy plumbing tapping natural hot springs BUT we do have beneath our feet: ROMANCETTER one fort, (a fort, moreover, that saw several incarnations) we do have the recently identified annexe to the fort we have evidence of a marching camp just beyond the river (maybe more than one) we have a burgus we know there was a ribbon development along the Watling St near the burgus we do know of at least one other significant building close to that road we know that the Roman presence spread north from here, to present day Witherley (see the display in the foyer here today showing the find in Witherley of the coffin of the little girl now named Orien) we know that Roman development extends to land between here and the Bosworth battlefield (see the display re Fenn Lane here in the hall ) Indeed, there have been many, many finds:- 5
1]... along with a range of all kinds of interesting finds (many featured on our Information Boards along the Mancetter Roman Trail)... 2]...and along with finds of pottery brought here by the Romans for their own use... 3 ]... there is the abundant evidence of the Romans own important pottery industry, of which we ll hear more today. Some of the pottery finds from Mancetter And here we need to pause for a moment and acknowledge how much voluntary work has been undertaken here by lay archaeologists. Lay, but highly competent, extremely dedicated, like Keith Scott in the fairly recent past, and Malcolm Lockett (of Hinckley Archaeological Society) in the present time. Both represented in displays around the hall here, Keith even by the original earlier plaque on the wall facing the car park outside. 6
SO - RoMancetter needs to become more visible. The fact that it s not is not for the lack of trying. Our four local associations work very hard on its promotion. Hinckley Archaeological Society, already mentioned, is pivotal in carrying out research via field-walking. The Friends of Atherstone Heritage present excellent displays, the display boards here being evidence of that. Hartshill History Group recently invited Malcolm Lockett to spend an evening describing his work, and Rebecca Dyde of that Hartshill group airs that, and her own work, at the display tables at the back. It is Atherstone Civic Society which has organised this event today, with the help of the West Midlands arm of the Council for British Archaeology (CBA WM). Atherstone Civic Society is responsible for the Information Boards around the Mancetter Roman Trail, supported by the booklet of which you have a copy today. The QR Codes on the Boards will take you to the ACS website where you ll find each Board is supported by a paper expanding on a board s spaceconstrained information (atherstonecivicsociety.co.uk ). ACS nursed to publication Colin Baddeley s history of Roman Mancetter, which came out in 2013, shortly after his death. And this day today itself is a kind of replica of the Roman Mancetter Celebration Day we held in 2013, illustrated by the photographs over along the back wall of the hall. 7
But to the future. If we had a magic wand, what would we like? FIRST: more research and study More continuing research and study leading to further understanding of the pottery industry and its national significance Likewise, work towards a better understanding of the recently found fort annexe, and of what was going on outside the fort, for instance in Old Farm Rd. And what might lie under the fields south of the fort, before the ground begins to rise into Hartshill Ridge? What of the other indications of Roman presence in the expanse parallel to the Watling St, north- and south-sides? For Warwickshire to forge more links with Leicestershire and Staffordshire to promote what seems to have been one unity of Roman development (untroubled as they were by county boundaries!). NEXT: something to see; increased visibility for Roman Manceter: for RoMancetter to have its own museum would be good and a visitor centre that presents and expands on the contents of the Trail Guide which you have today And I keep dreaming of something that could sit beside a visitor centre... I dream of a miniature reconstruction of RoMancetter, something like Bourton-on-the-Water s miniature village, a kind of little Legoland of Romancetter built in local stone. Think of the scholarship that would demand, not only to make it as accurate as possible, but also to work out how to portray the changing face of the site over several centuries? 8
It could be not only a focus, a goal, for further research, but also... think of how it would bring Roman Mancetter alight. And one more dream...could it be possible? To commemorate Boudica s monumental challenge to the Roman invaders, which ended in such a huge loss of life. Monumental it may have been, yet nowhere in Britain is there an actual monument in their memory, all those who fell. Here is Mancetter, some 7 or 8 miles from the geographical centre of England, and with a well-argued case to be the battle-site...why not her monument here? CONCLUSION So here it is, then, Mancetter from the air, in a photograph by Jim Pickering -- in 1971, I think. I m hoping, we are all hoping, that days like today, when Mancetter is appreciated, celebrated, and loved, will help to raise its profile. We hope today will be part of an ongoing project that - borrowing the title given to a description of finding Orien - shines a light on Mancetter s Roman past. 9