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Silchester - Calleva Atrebatum
This day was my first example of how effective thorough research can be when visiting small English towns. Silchester itself does not actually have a train station of any kind, so I had to change at Reading and take a train from there to a nearby town called Mortimer. This time I thought I'd try and be a little smarter about things - I didn't entrust my entire afternoon's entertainment to the sketchy instructions in my guide to Historical Walks in England. This time I combined this with my English Heritage guide book, which told me that the ruins were just under 4 miles away from the station. My maths said that wasn't very far in km's, so off I trotted.

I will say that it was a very beautiful walk, Mortimer is a very nice town, just small enough to be considered a country town, but near enough to a larger city to not make you think you're in the sticks.

Anyway, I have discovered that any walk, no matter how long or short becomes a fight for survival if it has to take place on the narrow, windy, pavementless roads occupied by tractors and middle-aged men in sports cars. By the time I located the ruins themselves, I'd nearly been completely flattened innumerable times, almost lost an eye from leaping into bracken several times, was covered in little nicks and scratches, as well as a few of those itchy thorn bites. My legs ached from trying to speed between patches where there was no clinging space to patches where there was. In short, I was exhausted.

Once I'd fed myself some mood-enhancing chocolate, I felt revived enough to attempt the official walk. I will say that I did manage to get from the start point of the walk to the end point. I did end up sharing a field with some rather intimidating stud horses for near half an hour while I contemplated turning back or forging ahead knowing that continuing in either direction would only make me more lost than I already was.

I did, eventually, walk around the ruins themselves.

 

The Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, the reason I went to Silchester in the first place, is an important archaeological site. Silchester was completely abandoned at the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, in the early 5th Century AD. This means that the layout of the Roman town remains intact. There are only two other towns in England which have survived to a similar extent. Today, the interior of Silchester is buried and, apart from the walls and the amphitheatre, there are no visible remains. The entire circuit of the town wall remains and is one of the best examples of its kind.

Pictured left is the amphitheatre.
A section of the wall, near the south gate, where the wall is well-preserved and survives to a height of 4.5 meters.

 

St Mary's Church, which is of medieval origin. The Church is actually within the city walls. Its still in use, as is the little cemetery. It is oddly common for Churches, no matter how small all large to have their own cemeteries. Worryingly, there were a number of head stones propped up against a wall. It made me think of all those stories where heavy rain has loosened poorly buried corpses, bringing them up to the surface. 

A little bit of historical info:
Calleva, meaning the woodland place, saw a great deal of change throughout its lifetime. It was an important centre in the Iron Age and continued to develop during the Roman period. As the road and monetary systems created economic opportunities, Calleva was well placed at the centre of the road network to flourish. With local leaders acting as officials in the Roman administrative system, Calleva become a Civitas, or regional, capital.

Exactly how long the occupation of the town continued, and the form it took, are matters for continuing conjecture and research. It is likely that, as the Roman infrastructure collapsed in the 5th Century, the town itself went into decline. It is certain, however, that people lived, worked and died here for at least 500 years, a longer span than that between the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II.