Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Roman Period

Roman Enclosure at Tollgate

The Iron Age settlement became disused soon after the Roman conquest, possibly when a new rectangular enclosure was established overlooking the Tollgate dry valley and the new Roman road of Watling Street. The southern part of the enclosure was discovered during CTRL investigations and had contained domestic and agricultural features. The route of the new A2 crossed the northern part of the enclosure, which contained a number of cremations and burials.

The eastern half of the enclosure contained a two metre square burial pit for a cremation, accompanied by one of the largest groups of grave goods in early Roman Britain. Adjacent to the cremation were the bronze handles of a gaming board and 23 dark blue and white glass counters, a rare find and one of only around 20 similar Roman gaming sets found in Britain. On the other side of the cremation were a large brooch and the remains of half a pig with a collection of bronze and pottery vessels.

There were three bronze vessels, a large cauldron, a ewer (or jug) and a patera (or pan) used to offer drinks to the gods. These would have been imported from Italy, and very similar items have been found in Pompeii. Arranged around these, and on a table above, were 18 pottery vessels, including flagons for wine, a butt-beaker for beer, cups, jars and dishes, almost all imported from France. Thirteen of the dishes and small jars lay halfway up the grave and below them, in two lines, were rows of decorative bronze roundels with central tacks and rectangular strips of sheet bronze decoration to the front of the table..

A smaller enclosure lay just outside the main enclosure, containing a further seven cremations and burials. One of these was almost as rich in finds as the first, containing 15 pottery vessels, including a decorated Samian ware bowl, a bronze patera and ewer, the bronze hinges and fittings for a folding table or board, a copper-bound box containing accessories for the baths, a slate cosmetic mixing palette and a brooch.

A second cremation was sufficiently well-preserved to determine that it was the grave of a woman. The remains were enclosed in a rectangular box marked by nails and copper alloy fittings, accompanied by a glass ointment bottle, a mirror, a knife, a brooch, several copper rings and five pottery vessels, mostly French imports. These burials appear to date from between AD 50 and AD 75, and together suggest that the site had been the home of a very important pro- Roman aristocratic family.

The cemetery continued to be used into the 2nd century AD. One of these later cremations was contained in a jar sealed by a Samian dish and had been partially buried before a flagon and a dish were added, possibly containing offerings of food and wine.

A century later, two burials were added to the cemetery. The mouth of one of these skeletons contained a coin minted c. AD 250. The coin was placed in the mouth to 'pay the ferryman' for safe passage into the afterlife. The body was buried in a coffin, with three pots at the waist and a pair of patterned hobnailed boots laid upside down at the feet. This burial was directly in line with the main early Roman cremation burials, suggesting that the earlier cremations had been marked, possibly by additional pots found above the graves.