A Portrait of Roman Britain by John Wacher

Author:John Wacher [Wacher, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415518604
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2013-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

Roofs of all types of building, whether timber-framed, half-timbered or masonry, were normally of tiles or slates, depending on the part of the country; this did not prevent, however, tiles from being used in good stone country, and some of the largest tile factories were situated on the fringe of the Cotswolds near Cirencester. But thatch may have been a cheaper alternative in poorer-quality houses.

Thus in most towns, both early and late, the predominant colour and texture was governed by a number of factors: lime-wash of varying shades of whiteness, depending on its freshness; exposed stone, changing from flint and brick in the south-east, to pale yellow in the Cotswolds and Lincolnshire, to brown in ironstone country, and red or dark red in sandstone regions; all topped off by red tiles, or slates of different hues, darkening with exposure to the weather and the growth of moss, lichens and algae. As today, and as already remarked, it was probably likely that travellers would be able to tell through which part of the country they were passing by observing the appearance of the buildings around them.

The treatment of vernacular buildings takes us logically to the minor towns, since they contained very similar building types, and the factors governing their external appearance would have been repeated. The principal difference in these minor towns was the less-orderly arrangement of streets and the lack of a regular grid, although some such as Catterick (fig. 31), Corbridge, Alchester and Ilchester possess the rudiments of one. More normal, however, were those like Kenchester, Water Newton (fig. 32) and Wanborough among fortified sites, and Camerton, Hibaldstow and Sapperton, which were not defended, where the town had grown up along a main road. In these cases shops and houses would be concentrated along the frontages, with subsidiary roads and lanes leading off to the rear of the premises and to other buildings placed further away; these lanes would be constructed as and where the need arose. A further distinction in minor towns can be observed in the lack of public buildings, such as a basilica, although even here one cannot be dogmatic. Godmanchester possessed a basilica-like building in the third century, but it is more probable to have been associated with adjacent imperial estates. Mansiones, often accompanied by bath-houses, are known in a number of sites such as Catterick, Wanborough and Godmanchester; the bath-houses would have lent height to an otherwise comparatively uniform level. Otherwise height was obtained from temples, theatres and amphitheatres, and a number of minor towns grew up as religious centres. Foremost among them, as already indicated, was Bath with its great classical temple and associated hot baths, but Wycomb and Frilford both possessed theatres or amphitheatres as well as Romano-Celtic temples set in precincts. The industrial site of Charterhouse-in-Mendip contained an amphitheatre. But it is more likely to have been related to an army detachment running the silver/lead mines. In other respects, most minor towns resembled their regional major counterparts in both colour and texture.

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