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Leicester, as a physical social community, has been in existence for at least two thousand years. Its Roman history is well known. Even after two millennia of development and change, many of the streets and lanes in the central area of the city follow closely the pattern of the original Roman `grid'. However, is it possible to trace the history of the area back even further, before the invasion of Rome, and find evidence of a settlement that can be regarded as the true origin of the city of Leicester? There is much that is still to be discovered about the nature of human occupation and activity both immediately before the Roman invasion and in the centuries that followed their retreat. Presented here are some views and considerations that may well need to be revised as further archaeological evidence is discovered. Confused debate can arise over the definition of a `town'. It is a settlement, but it is more than a social gathering of individuals and their families. There must be an underlying order, a social cohesiveness and a structure of organisation that will involve the creation and maintenance of laws and orders. There is likely to be some form of trading, because if nomadic peoples move in order to seek food, sentient groups must either include farmers and husbandmen, or will need to have food brought to them. Merchants and markets will also therefore become part of the equation, and with them comes the necessity for coinage to enable transactions as well as bartering. There has been much research and discussion regarding the geographical location of towns. Some have been labelled as `river crossing' towns, and others as `gap' towns, suggesting that such settlements developed adjacent to a fording point or in a break between a range of hills; but other investigators point to the numerous gaps and crossing points on maps where towns have never existed. Towns were created to meet the specific requirements of a community. These needs may have been economic, thus requiring a location along a known trading route; but they may also have been defensive, or a location may have had some deeper psychological or even religious attraction such as an alignment of natural landmarks in relation to the sun and the stars. In practical terms, the location of a town was also related directly to the ability of a community to manage the environment. Those groups who travelled by sea could settle easily in coastal areas; communities who knew the skills of land drainage and agriculture could establish permanent settlements in marshland areas. Those who were builders could colonise steep hills. Leicester lies in a low basin through which runs the River Soar. It was adjacent to, if not surrounded, by forest and woodland, ancient geographical features now lost, but which have survived in a number of local place names such as Leicester Forest East and Woodgate. We cannot say that Leicester was `founded' by the Belgae, nor that the presence of a river and woodland had any relevance to its location; but given the evidence presently available, we can speculate that the invading Romans, as they pushed north, found an identifiable community here. The Roman town in its heyday covered around 100 acres, and is the now confirmed as the civitas capital of the Coritani tribe of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and east Derbyshire. In keeping with numerous other areas of Britain, Leicestershire claims an association with the fabled King Arthur. St Gildas wrote of a battle called Badon at which Arthur totally defeated the Saxons, but the chronicler does not refer to Arthur by name. Several locations for this battle have been suggested, the most acceptable being Liddington Castle near Swindon, and in the vicinity of the Badbury Rings in Dorset. However, a less well known legend proposes Leicestershire's Bardon Hill as the location. Local stories claim that Arthur watched the approach of the Saxons from the summit of Bardon and that his forces then swept down the hill and massacred them. The similarity between Bardon and Badon is obvious. A nearby field name is still referred to as `Battle Flat', and the local legend also claims that the dead were buried at nearby Billa Barra hill. | ||
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