A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



front, it may very well have been fought on the verge of the forest district 

 in Hertfordshire, all Middlesex being then forest. The Britons were 

 defeated with great slaughter and peace was gradually restored in south-east 

 Britain." 



In the Flavian epoch the governors — amongst them Agricola — began 

 to encourage the general adoption of Roman civilization, which hitherto, 

 judging from the causes of the revolt under Boadicea, had been mainly 

 confined to the larger towns. In Hertfordshire the places inhabited in the 

 Roman era, Verulamium, Welwyn, Braughing and Hitchin, are all apparently 

 on the sites of British settlements and the association of British and Roman 

 objects points to a gradual Romanization of the district which had begun 

 probably before the Claudian invasion. 



The Roman settlements in Hertfordshire follow the lines of the rivers 

 and roads, and are therefore not usually on the highest lands. In the 

 valley of the Chess there were ' villas ' at Sarratt and at Latimer just over 

 the county boundary. In the valley of the Gade there were ' villas ' at 

 Abbot's Langley, Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead, while Roman objects 

 have been found at Great Berkhampstead, Northchurch and Wigginton, 

 and a cemetery at Tring gives indication of a settlement. Along Watling 

 Street, which traverses the valleys of the Colne and Ver, were the town of 

 Verulamium and a little settlement possibly near Aldcnham. Along the 

 Lea cemeteries mark, the sites of settlements at Hoddesdon and Ware, and 

 some way further up the stream remains at Harpenden suggest habitation. 

 On the Mimram was the settlement at Welwyn. In the valley of the Rib 

 there are a 'villa' at Youngsbury in Standon parish, a station at Braughing 

 and a cemetery at Westmill indicating a settlement. In the north of the 

 county there is a considerable group of settlements around Hitchin which 

 belongs to the watershed of the Cam. Here the cemeteries at Pirton, 

 Hitchin, Willian, Norton and Letchworth and the ' villa ' at Purwell Mill 

 in Great Wymondley indicate settlements. At Baldock, where Roman 

 remains have been found, there was possibly a small station at the crossing 

 of Stane Street and Icknield Way and another for the like reason at Royston 

 at the crossing of Ermine Street and Icknield Way. At Ashwell and 

 Hinxworth there were cemeteries also which may imply settlements. It 

 seems clear from the disposition of these settlements that the waterways as 

 well as the roads were used as lines of communication by the Romans. 



In this fertile district probably most of the settlements were composed 

 of the so-called ' villas,' the properties of large landowners, sometimes 

 Romans, but more often Romanized Britons. These landowners lived in 

 comfortable houses and caused the lands immediately round them to be culti- 

 vated by their slaves and let the rest of their land to the half-serf coloni.^* 



The Romano-British houses are mainly of two types which were 

 suitable to the climate and are only to be found in Britain and northern 

 Gaul, namely, (a) the corridor type, showing in plan a row of rooms with a 

 passage or corridor running along one side, or occasionally on both sides, 

 and (b) the courtyard type, having three rows of such rooms with corridors 

 running along three sides of a square with an open courtyard in the middle. 



" Tacitus, Annals, xiv, 33-8. " F. Haverfield, The Romanization of Roman Britain (ed. 2), 53. 



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