HS2 archaeologists reveal secrets of small Roman town near Aylesbury

Archaeologists have been able to excavate a Roman town in Fleet Marston, discovering more about what life was like in Roman Britain two thousand years ago.

HS2 released this information:

A team of around 50 archaeologists uncovered a series of enclosures that contained evidence of domestic structures, as well as commercial and industrial activity. These enclosures developed in a ladder-like plan either side of Akeman Street, a major Roman road that linked the Roman capital of Verulamium (modern St Albans) with Corinium Dobunnorum (now Cirencester) and going via Roman Alchester (near Bicester).

The team has also discovered over 1,200 coins along with several lead weights, indicating that this was an area of trade and commerce.  Parts of the widened road may have been used as a market, with extra room for carts and stalls.  Other metal objects, such as spoons, pins and brooches, were of a more domestic nature, while gaming dice and bells suggest that gambling and religious activity occupied people’s time there too. Apart from being home to many inhabitants, the settlement is likely to have been an important staging post for travellers and soldiers passing through Fleet Marston.

A late Roman cemetery, the largest of its kind now known in Buckinghamshire has also been excavated. The cemetery contained around 425 burials. As was typical in the late Roman period, the cemetery predominantly contained inhumation burials but also included some cremation burials. The number of burials, along with the development of the settlement, suggests that there was a population influx into the town in the mid to  late Roman period, linked perhaps to increased agricultural production. There are two separate areas of burials suggesting the cemetery may have been organised by tribe, family, ethnic grouping.

Richard Brown, Senior Project Manager for COPA said:
“The excavation is significant in both enabling a clear characterisation of this Roman town but also a study of many of its inhabitants. Along with several new Roman settlement sites discovered during the HS2 works it enhances and populates the map of Roman Buckinghamshire” 

Fleet Marston is one of over 100 archaeological sites that HS2 has examined since 2018 between London and Birmingham, which together provide a detailed insight into the rich history of Britain. A larger Roman settlement, Blackgrounds, has also been excavated by HS2 archaeologists in South Northamptonshire, providing more evidence of what life was like in Roman Britain.