Roads and Places
How did people travel around Roman Britain?
In Roman times people travelling round Britain would either ride on horseback, drive carts pulled by oxen, or walk. All the roads they had to travel along
would be straight. Winding roads may be interesting to walk along but it takes you
a lot longer to get where you are going and bandits and robbers can be hiding
around bends.
Roman roads were carefully built to slope down from the middle to ditches
on either side. This way the rain would drain away and not make the road too muddy.
What was the rest of Roman Britain like?
Near the borders of Roman Britain the country could still be quite wild. People who lived here were often farmers. These farmers lived in small villages of
round wooden houses with thatched roofs, much as they had before the Romans
arrived.
Some wealthy Romans would also live near to towns, in villas. Villas were
large farms with a luxurious house for the owners (the workers lived in ordinary
houses made of wood). Villas would often have rooms with painted walls and mosaic floors, and even central heating. Most of the villas were only found in the
South of England.
What is special about Roman towns?
Often towns grew up near to forts and we can tell this today by their names.
If a place name includes the words 'chester' or 'cester', it is because it is on the site
of a Roman fort e.g. Chester, Gloucester, and Manchester. The word 'chester'
comes from the Roman word for a fort - 'castrum'.
Most towns would also have shops and a market place called a forum. At
one end of the forum was a large building called the basilica. This was a cross between a law court and a town hall. The magistrates carried out all the important
business here.
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