MIDLAND UNION OU NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
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probability leaving behind him representatives, or, as we should call 
them, consuls, to look after Koman interests, and for whose safety the 
hostages were doubtless the guarantee. 
It was ninety-seven years before the Romans reappeared, and 
during this period their agents had been diligently furthering Roman 
interests and developing the great thoroughfares of the country, three 
of which traverse our immediate district. They are the Watling 
Street, which runs from Richborough, on the coast of Kent, through 
High Cross, Manduessedum, Atherstone, Fazeley, and Wall, to 
Holyhead, in Anglesea, the great port for Ireland, sending a branch 
from near Chester, northwards to Scotland. 
The Ickuield Street, or “ Road of the Iceni,” proceeds from the 
coast near Great Yarmouth, by Royston, where it intersects the 
Ermyn Street to Dunstable, when it crosses the Watling Street and 
thence crossing the Thames passes by Bridport to the Lands End. 
This I mention in particular as the ordnance map places the Icknield 
Street between Birmingham and Wall, consequently this road, the 
Icknield Street, is erroneously connected with Tamworth, whilst it is 
the Rykenield Street, or road of the Upper Iceni, in which we are 
directly interested. This road connected Newcastle-on-Tyue, Chester¬ 
field, Derby, Burton, Wall, where it crossed the Watling Street, the 
exact spot being indicated by three ancient stones, one in either hedge- 
baiik and one in the middle of a field crossed by a footpath between 
the termination of the Watling Street at Barn End and the point by the 
Trooper at Wall, when the road recommences, with Sutton Coldfield, 
Birmingham, King’s Norton, Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Chepstow, and 
Carmarthen, finishing at St. David’s. 
The Fosseway extended southwards from Lincoln to Leicester (in 
the museum of which town is a beautifully preserved Roman mile¬ 
stone) by High Cross, where it intersects the Watling Street, 
continuing past Brinklow, one of the finest earthworks in Warwick¬ 
shire, and so on to Bath. 
The Ermyn Street leads from the coast of Sussex to the south¬ 
east part of Scotland. 
In A.D. 43, the Emperor Claudius decided on again invading 
Britain, and sent an army under Plautius for that object, who, after 
desperate fighting with Caractacus, became dispirited, and called on 
Claudius for assistance. The Emperor came with armed elephants 
and much pomp. In the meantime Caractacus had retreated towards 
the west, and although Claudius only stayed sixteen days, his visit 
had the desired effect, and reinspired the Roman army with courage. 
After a few years Caractacus was signally defeated at Caer Caradoc, 
in Shropshire, by Ostorius Scapula, and being betrayed by his mother- 
in-law, was handed over a prisoner to the Romans in a.d. 51. 
The Romans now divided the country into five provinces, the 
central one called “ Flavia Caesariensis ” extending from the Thames 
to the Humber, and so including Tamworth. 
Nothing further that especially interests us occurred until a.d. 78, 
