Letocetum
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Letocetum is the ancient remains of a Roman settlement. It was an important military staging post and posting station near the junction of Watling Street, the Roman military road to north Wales, and Icknield (or Ryknild) Street (now the A38). The site is now within the parish of Wall, Staffordshire, England. It is owned and run by the National Trust, under the name Letocetum Roman Baths Site & Museum. The site is in the guardianship of English Heritage as Wall Roman Site.
Key facts
- Ancient site.alt
- Low reddish-coloured stone walls, the construction of which suggests antiquity, lie in a grassy area backed by the outline of a modern settlement including a church with a spire. The trees lack leaves and the sky is a clear blue.
- Ancient site.caption
- View of Letocetum from St. John the Baptist Church
- Ancient site.location
- Wall, Staffordshire
- Ancient site.type
- mansio and bath house
- Ancient site.built
- c. 50 CE
- Ancient site.abandoned
- 4th century
- Ancient site.epochs
- Roman Empire
- Ancient site.cultures
- Romano-British
- Ancient site.condition
- Ruins
- Ancient site.ownership
- National Trust
- Ancient site.public_access
- Yes
- Ancient site.name
- Letocetum
- Ancient site.image
- Letocetum view from St.John the Baptist Church.jpg
via Wikipedia infobox
~16 min read
Encyclopedic overview
13 sectionsContents
- Name
- History
- Native settlement
- Military staging post
- Posting station
- Early mansiones and bath houses
- Civilian development; the third mansio and second bath-house
- Late Roman defences; abandoned mansio and bath-house
- Post-Roman abandonment and later re-occupation
- Gallery
- Notes
- References
- External links
Letocetum is the ancient remains of a Roman settlement. It was an important military staging post and posting station near the junction of Watling Street, the Roman military road to north Wales, and Icknield (or Ryknild) Street (now the A38). The site is now within the parish of Wall, Staffordshire, England. It is owned and run by the National Trust, under the name Letocetum Roman Baths Site & Museum. The site is in the guardianship of English Heritage as Wall Roman Site.
The Romans came to Letocetum in 50AD to establish a fortress during the early years of the invasion of Britain. The land could not support large numbers of soldiers and Letocetum, at an important cross-roads, became a large scale posting station. The settlement developed with successive bath houses and mansiones built to serve the official travellers as well as the growing civilian population. It is known mainly from detailed excavations in 1912–13, which concentrated on the sites of the mansio and bath-house.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Letocetum” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Gallery (12)
On the map
24 mapped locations