Libraries and leisure

Roman Invasion and Occupation (AD 43-410)

Following the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43 the native British population of Hertfordshire appears to have readily embraced the new Roman way of life. Most of the existing major late Iron Age settlements developed quickly into Roman Towns. Of these, Verulamium, Baldock and Braughing became thriving commercial centres and Verulamium eventually became the third largest town in Roman Britain.

A group of smaller urban centres developed along the principal Roman roads at Ware, Welwyn, Bishop’s Stortford and Cow Roast, Northchurch. Many of the Iron Age native farmsteads and villages also continued to be occupied in the Roman period, and a number of the more wealthy establishments were replaced by Roman Villas with masonry walls, tiled roofs and bath-houses.

Hertfordshire is particularly noted for its Roman villas - there are over forty known. The more impressive of these include the large villa at Gadebridge, Hemel Hempstead which had a large open-air swimming pool constructed in the 3rd century AD, and the large villa complex at Dicket Mead, Welwyn, which has one of its bath houses preserved as museum under the modern A1 (M) and has also produced evidence for the presence of Greek craftsman working at the site.

Raw materials including grain and animal hides were exported from Britain to other parts of the Roman Empire and large quantities of manufactured goods were imported. Commercial markets and industries also developed and in Hertfordshire substantial pottery and tile manufacturing centres are known from the Elstree and Hadham areas, both of which are of national importance.

Hertfordshire also contains some of the best examples of Roman burial mounds in Britain. Burying people under such mounds was not a common practice in the Roman period and they are also geographically restricted to SE England. The group of Roman burial mounds at Stevenage, known as ‘The Six Hills’ is the most complete surviving group in Britain and other fine examples are can also be seen at Hemel Hempstead and Thunderidge.