Britain AD: King Arthur’s Britain

Amid the gentle hills of the Shropshire countryside lie the remains of the Roman town of Wroxeter. Romantic ruins fascinated early antiquarians, who saw it as an evocative reminder of the great civilisation which had fallen into ruin. Wroxeter was first excavated in the 19th century. These Victorian archaeologists were so excited by the Roman remains here that they did not spot something that would completely rewrite the history of the time.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that archaeologists discovered the real story of Wroxeter.

As they wandered over the rubble, they found two large round stones. The inspector said “perhaps these are the same”. They noticed lines of packed rubble and plaster. They realised they had this massive great building. It was so big, it was like trying to see an elephant standing a foot away.

Dr Roger White “The North Wall was dismantled and the rubble was used to create a huge building platform. They were making a solid foundation on which they could then build a timber-frame structure. The dating was the major problem. The big building and all the others found it had to fit in between about 520 and about 590, 600.”

So, I mean, we’re long, long after the official end of Roman Britain in 410, aren’t we? And they’re laying out huge buildings in Roman measurements. They’re thinking like Romans, aren’t they?

Dr Roger White

Roger White “We think of Romans as being foreigners who come over, occupy the country, then go away again. They weren’t. The people in the country Romanised. They became Roman.”

Central control, central administration had broken down, so… Who was organising, and was it an Arthur-like character?

Dr Roger White “It’s a very difficult question to answer, because we had no evidence. It’s like trying to say who lives in Buckingham Palace purely from the foundations. What we can say, however, is that this person had power. So they are someone who is able to command authority. There is a structure to the society.”

The discoveries of Wroxeter were a great advance in archaeology, they opened the way for re-examination of other Roman sites in Britain to discover what happened during the “Dark Ages”.

Hadrian’s Wall was one of the most important military sites in Roman Britain. Stretching from coast to coast, the wall includes a series of garrison forts. In its heyday, this was a bustling community of soldiers and their families defending the northern fringes of the Empire.

Battle of Camlann

What happened after the Roman army pulled out has long been a mystery. It used to be believed that King Arthur fought his final battle of Camlann near this remote, windy spot on Hadrian’s Wall. But recent work has shown that within the fort of Birdoswald, there was an altogether more extraordinary archaeological story to tell.

Birdoswald is the most westerly of the series of forts which line the wall. Miriam Lincoln showed me around the remains of this military headquarters.

Miriam Lincoln “There is the main road through with buildings either side. A huge drill Hall and granaries.”

Tony Wilmot

It was the granaries that archaeologist Tony Wilmot decided to examine. When he began excavation here.

Tony Wilmot “I just had a feeling that late Roman would survive quite well. The chap in one corner said we’ve got a bit of a straight line here. Chap in another corner said bit of a right angle I went to the top of the tower of the farmhouse and saw this great rectangle.”

Above the stone foundations of the Roman granaries, Tony discovered the remains of the huge structure which was built long after the Roman troops withdrew. It was a unique archaeological discovery.

What was it like?

Tony Wilmot “It was jaw dropping. You know? You’re thinking God, this is… This is it, really.”

Miriam Lincoln “You’ve got this lovely huge open structure, thatched roof, and it would be the first thing you saw as you came through the gateway.”

Tony Wilmot “I put one of my most experienced diggers to give a very quick clean to this trench, I didn’t say what I was looking for. I said ‘anything odd?’ And she said ‘there is hard, flat patches’. And they paired up. It was completely objective, because I hadn’t told her. That’s how it was confirmed.”

The strange markings that Tony found were the remains of 12 footings which formed the skeleton of an enormous wooden hall that had been built after the Roman troops departed.

So what kind of a group of men built a building like that? It’s a socking great building.

Tony Wilmot “It’s a socking great thing, the key is there’s no break. The commander, perhaps a hereditary commander, would have become a central authority. You can see that morphing into a petty king or a petty leader.”

Is this a protection racket?

Tony Wilmot “It’s not hard to see them saying carry on paying your Roman taxes and we’ll see you right. From taxation to protection racket is not a huge jump.”

The history books tell us Roman soldiers pulled out and darkness descended.

Miriam Lincoln “Yeah. It wasn’t happening here. These were native Britons. They had nowhere to go, this was for them, and so had to find a living. Certainly, there was no mass withdrawal from Birdoswald.”

Do you reckon there are more late forts along Hadrian’s Wall?

Tony Wilmot “There are certain to be. These communities didn’t just disappear. If you are sitting pretty behind high walls, you’re not just going to disappear and start subsistence farming. You’re going to stay put. There is evidence from a number of places now that this took place. Perhaps Birdoswald is one of a network of fortified centres that are growing up. In the south-west, we’ve got hillfort is being re-occupied. We should see Birdoswald as one of those rather than being part of the Roman frontier system.”