Box People and Places
Latest Issue 31 Spring 2021 
  • This Issue
    • Celebrity Visits
    • Middlehill Tunnel
    • Doris Pepita Chappell
    • Local Roman Finds
    • Gingell
    • Jut the Ticket
    • Straightening & Levelling
    • Tottle Family
    • Rudloe Part 2
    • Bowdler
    • Bullocks Worldwide
    • James Shell of KIngsdown
    • Bill Peter Recalled
    • Rudloe WW2 Remnants
    • More Stink Pipes
    • Northey Tankard Found
  • Early Medieval
    • Britain in Late Antiquity
    • Box after AD 350
    • Why Speak English?
    • Art and Craft
  • Previous
    • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
    • Issue 28 - VE Day
    • Issue 27 - Northey
    • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
    • Earlier Issues 1 - 25 >
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • Series
    • Northeys >
      • Early Family
      • World of the Northeys
      • Unpaid Bill: Smith & Northey
      • Family Tree
      • George Wilbraham
      • Life in Box
      • George Edward
      • Safe & Steady Son
      • Army Life
      • Theatrical Events
      • Rolls-Royce Pioneer
      • Northey Donkey Cart
      • Other Children
      • Later Family
      • Selling Up
      • Northey Legacy
    • Box School Series >
      • Box Charity School
      • Formation of Box Schools
      • Schools WW1 to WW2
      • Box Schools, 1920s
      • Boys' School, 1927
      • Evacuee Schoolboy 1941
      • Box School 1945-83
      • Class of 1954
    • Box Farms >
      • Weavern Farm and Mill
      • Old Jockey Farm
      • Hill House Farm
      • Coles Farm
    • Box Library Project
    • NATS Trails >
      • Heritage Trails 2019
      • Conservation Areas
      • Box NATS Trails 2018
      • Alcombe and Shockerwick
      • Mills on Box Brook
      • Saxon Footpaths
      • New History Trails 2017
      • Roman Road
      • Box Hill Trail
      • Georgian Middlehill
      • History Trails 2016
      • Mad House
      • Thomas Railway
      • Market Place Origins
    • Prehistory >
      • Kingsdown's Menhir Secrets
    • Roman >
      • Early History Hoard
      • Roman Road Finds
      • Ancient Discovery
      • Roman Mosaics in Box
    • Early Medieval
    • Feudal >
      • Magna Carta in Box
      • Monk's Tale
      • Norman Conquest of Box
      • Tracing Bartholomew Bigod
      • When it Rained and Rained
    • Late Medieval
    • Tudor & Stuart >
      • Box in Civil War 1642 - 51
      • Wolf Hall and Box
      • Marsh Family
      • People during Civil War
      • Original Box Revels
      • Tudor Local Government
      • Ordinary People
      • Religion in Box, 1475-1660
      • Where You Live in 1626 >
        • Ashley
        • Central Box
        • Ditteridge
        • Hatt, Old Jockey and Blue Vein
        • Hazelbury
        • Henley and Washwells
        • Kingsdown
        • Middlehill
        • Rudloe
      • Hugh Speke Shaped Box
      • Walter Bushnell
      • Reformation in Box, 1535
      • Ten Tudor & Stuart Mansions
      • Death at Thomas à Becket >
        • For Whom Box Bell Tolled
      • Tudor & Stuart Timeline
      • John Aubrey's Box
    • Georgian >
      • Napoleon versus Box
      • Revolutionary Times
      • Coaches in 1830
      • Agricultral Census 1803
      • Tithe Apportionment
      • Slavery Families
      • Mullins Family, Schoolmasters
      • Box Churchyard
      • Sheridan's Duel
      • Tree of Life at Middlehill
      • Box's Highwayman
      • 1752: Very Odd Year
      • Witches, Quakers and Chapels
      • The New Road, 1761
      • Vulgarity in Box
      • Rebuilding the Village
      • Speke Family
      • Georgian People
      • Georgian Timeline
    • Rail & Quarry >
      • Crane 57
      • Railway Men Remembered
      • Old Clay Pipe
      • Recalling Box Quarries >
        • Oily Series
      • Quarrymen and their Families
      • Built in Stoneyards
      • Quarries in 2000
      • Single Ticket
      • Trainspotting in Box
      • Light Through Box Tunnel >
        • More Light on Tunnel
        • Brunel Myth
        • Sunrise at Box Tunnel
      • Marl at Middlehill
      • James Moodey
      • Railway Staff in Box
      • Impact of Railways
      • Vivash Follow-up
      • Underground Quarries
      • Lambert's Stoneyard
      • Cranes at Work
      • Railway Policeman
      • Terror in Tunnels
      • Vivash Family
      • Railway Buildings and More
      • Why Railways Came to Box
      • Box in 1830
      • Building Box Tunnel
      • Boxing and Quarrymen >
        • More Jem Mace
      • Clift Quarry Steam Loco
      • Timeline 1830 - 1870
      • Trial Shaft
      • Underbridges
    • Late Victorian >
      • Edwardian Love Story
      • Northey Estate Sale 1912-1923
      • Box Fete & Friendly Societies
      • Methodism in Box
      • George Reeves, Quarryman Ganger
      • Dipsomania in Box
      • 1870 Start of Era
      • Victorian Farming
      • Ashley Leigh
      • Steam Mill and Cottages
      • Class Division
      • Grove Inn
      • Box House
      • Celebrations >
        • Jubilee Mug 1887
      • Parish Magazine History
      • Postcards of Box >
        • Postcard Solved
      • Skeate, Speck and Ponting
      • 1899 A Year of Festivities
      • Valens Terrace
      • Village Outings >
        • Excitement for Outings
        • Cycling Craze
      • Timeline 1840 to now
      • Local Pubs
    • Great War >
      • Photos 2014
      • Cecil Lambert's War
      • VAD Working Parties
      • After the War
      • Box School Research
      • School WW1 Projects
      • List of Servicemen
      • Embroideries
      • In Memoriam
      • Never Forgotten
      • Where They Lived
      • Christmas 1913 and 1914
      • Children in WW1
      • Neighbour Against Neighbour
      • Home & Far Away
      • Finding Private Hall
      • Box Before the War
    • Inter War Years >
      • Shops in 1920s
      • Fascism
      • Sports Day 1931
    • WW2 Index >
      • Land Girl Remembers
      • World War 2 Scrapbook
      • Box in 1943
      • Aircraft Factories
      • D Day Implications, 1944
      • Peace
      • VE Day 1945
      • After the War
      • Epitaph to WW2
      • Wartime Memories
      • Wartime People
      • Bath Blitz 1942
      • Invasion Threat 1942
      • Children in War
      • Air Raids on Box
      • Military Camps
      • Royal Visits
      • Your WW2 Tributes
      • Dunkirk Evacuation
      • Box Home Guard >
        • Home Guard Names
      • Life at Home
      • Evacuee Children
      • Village & Ammunitions Depot
      • Memories of WW2
      • In Service at Home
      • At War
      • Lead up to War
      • Servicemen & Women
      • Timeline 1939-45
      • VE Day Remembered
      • Dennis Moss >
        • Hazelbury Air Crash
        • Air Crash Wreath
        • Flight Crew Lost
        • Graham Brayshaw
      • Evacuated From Belgium
      • WW2 Resting Place
      • Sherman Tank Disaster
    • Modern >
      • Modern Art
      • Centre of Commerce
      • Shoe Sculpture >
        • Stiletto Sculpture
      • Characters in 1940s
      • Teenage Rebels, 1960s
      • Swingin Sixties or Not?
      • A Box Childhood
      • Box People from 1950s
      • Shops in 1950 Box
      • Box in 1950s
      • Village in 1950s
      • Summer of 1959
      • reCollections
      • Residents After the War
      • Coach Trips 1950s
      • Never Had It So Good !
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
Finds on Box's Roman Road     Andrew Harrison and Mark Smith       June 2017
Metal Detecting
Cousins, Andrew Harrison and Mark Smith, are metal detectors who have been investigating finds along the Roman Road which still forms the southern boundary of the parish in the area of Hatt.

The road was called the Via Julia by the Romans and we know that it was built early in the first century of Roman occupation as a military route linking Mildenhall (Marlborough) with Bath.

There has never been a modern-day archaeological investigation of the area but the soil has been well-tilled over the years and has thrown up a number of finds.

Andrew and Mark emphasise the need to get permission from the landowner and to record discoveries in careful and systematic way.

Right: Mark excavating the Roman bowl
Picture
The finds on the Roman Road are not valuable as such but they enable us to understand the history of Box in more detail.
Roman
Coins


Antoninus
138-161


Domitian
81-96

As we might expect, a number of coins were found on the road, presumably part of the Roman soldier's pay which was dropped.

Seen Middle: Antoninus silver denarius. Antoninus was the emperor who built the Antonine Wall in Scotland.

Right: Domitian coin dating from the first century which may indicate how early the Road was built. Domitian has been characterised as a tyrant who fostered a cult of self-glorification.
Picture
Picture
Roman Life
There was no accommodation on the road in the Box area and soldiers would have marched on to Bath, pausing only for a refreshment break. Even so, wagons filled with their possessions would have accompanied them and possessions slipping off the carts included items needed for repairs to their uniforms, eating utensils and playtime objects.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Above left to right: Thimble for repairs to uniform and sandals; Roman broach; Roman bowl still in the soil; Roman dice for entertainment
Later Finds
The road was used for centuries after the Roman period and even became a farm track called Bulcot Lane. It was particlularly used in the medieval period when trade and travel became easier. The photos below show (left and middle) a Henry III voided longcross penny cut into half to be a halfpenny and (right) a late medieval lead token used to buy goods instead of coinage when currency was debased by clipping coin edges or using impure metal to bulk out silver and gold species.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Back to Issue 18