Oldest town in Britain

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The title of oldest town in Britain is claimed by a number of settlements in Great Britain.

Contents

Abingdon

Abingdon in the English county of Oxfordshire (historically Berkshire) claims to be the oldest town in Britain in continuous settlement. [1] Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age remains have been found in and around the town, [2] and evidence of a late-Iron Age enclosure of 33 hectares known as an 'oppidum' was discovered underneath the town centre in 1991. [3] It continued to be used as a town throughout the Roman occupation of Britain [4] and subsequently became a Saxon settlement, [5] named Sevekesham [6] (or Seovechesham) [7] at a time when most other Roman cities were being abandoned. [8] [9] [10] Abingdon Abbey which gave the town its present name was founded in the seventh century.

Amesbury

Amesbury along with Stonehenge in Wiltshire is claimed to be Britain's oldest settlement, dating back to 8820 BC according to a project led by the University of Buckingham. The place is said to have been a transport point with the River Avon acting as a transit route. Evidence of frogs' legs being eaten as well as 31,000 flints and animal bones have also been found. [11]

Colchester

Colchester claims to be Britain's oldest recorded town. [12] [13] However as of 2019 (possibly pre-empting its grant of city status in 2022) it has begun claiming the title of "Britain's First City". [14] [15] Its claim is based on a reference by Pliny the Elder, the Roman writer, in his Natural History ( Historia Naturalis ) in 77 AD. He described Anglesey as "about 200 miles (322 km) from Camulodunum, a town in Britain", where Camulodunum was the Roman name for Colchester. It is claimed that this is the first known reference to any named settlement in Britain, although coins minted by Tasciovanus mention the Celtic name of the settlement, Camulodunon, as early as 20-10 BC. [16]

Archaeological evidence near Colchester has been dated to the Palaeolithic, with flint tools including at least six Acheulian handaxes having been discovered, [17] from the Mesolithic, [18] the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. In the 1980s, an inventory showed that over 800 pieces of Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery have been found within the town, as well as many examples of worked flint. [17] However the origins of the town lie in the Celtic tribal capital of Camulodunon, which was in existence from at least the first century BC under Addedomarus. [16] Later, under the Celtic warlords Cunobelin and Caratacus in the first century AD, it became the most powerful Celtic kingdom in Britain. [19] In 43 AD, the settlement was conquered by the Roman Empire under Emperor Claudius, who led the attack in person, [20] building a legionary fortress on the site, the first in Britain. [21] This was converted into the town of Colonia Victricensis in 49 AD, becoming the provincial capital and the only pre-Boudican town to have the honour of Roman citizenship. [19] [22] [23] [24] Its town walls, constructed between 61 AD and 80 AD, are the oldest Roman town walls in Britain by at least 150 years. [19] [23] The town was home to a large classical temple, two theatres (including Britain's largest), several Romano-British temples, Britain's only known chariot circus, Britain's first town walls, several large cemeteries and over 50 known mosaics and was home to around 30,000 people. [16] [19] [20] [25] The town is mentioned by name several times by Roman authors, including in Ptolemy's Geography, Tacitus's Annales, The Antonine Itinerary and the Ravenna Cosmography, [21] as well as on monuments such as the tomb inscription for Gnaeus Munatius Aurelius Bassus in Rome, which mentions his time in the town as a census-officer for the Roman population. [16] There is much evidence of activity in Colchester until the early fifth century AD, [16] [26] after which it becomes more scarce. Although there are scattered settlement sites, burials and artefacts in Colchester from between the fifth and ninth centuries AD [26] there is a debate over whether it could be called a “town” in this period (see Camulodunum § Sub-Roman Period). Aside from a ninth-century reference by Nennius to a Caer Colun, the first time Colchester is explicitly mentioned in written accounts is an entry for 917 AD in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, when it is recorded that King Edward the Elder led a Saxon army from Surrey, Kent and Essex to recapture the town from a Danish army that had been encamped there since the mid to late ninth century. [16]

Ipswich

The claim of Ipswich, the county town of the English county of Suffolk, is to be the 'oldest English town', and is made in a quite specific sense. Within the Borough boundaries of modern Ipswich, and in its vicinity, there is plentiful evidence of Lower Palaeolithic and Upper Palaeolithic, Neolithic, other prehistoric, Roman and Migration Age occupation. But the claim of Ipswich is grounded upon the fact that it never was an Iron Age or Romano-British town, but at its core was and is the oldest still continuing town to have been established and developed by the English. [27] [28] It has an unbroken history of community as a town since early Anglo-Saxon times.

In this claim,

During the Migration age Germanic customs, the roots of the English language and the distinctive industrial arts and construction techniques of the northern continent were transplanted into eastern Britain. Industrial activity ceased to follow Roman models of organized provincial distribution, but (in the absence of a money currency) reflected more localized needs, or else communications between grand households and patrons. The emergence of regional powers and kingdoms was accompanied by the growth of Emporia, or regional trading-centres for the production, import and export of goods, with attendant service communities. Ipswich (Gipeswic, Yepiswyche, etc.) (in the historic Kingdom of East Anglia) is thought to have been comparable to early Hamwic , a forerunner of modern Southampton (in the historic Kingdom of Wessex), emerging as a primary community serving the kingdom's trade activity towards the Rhine (comparably to Dorestad) through the 7th and 8th centuries, as Hamwih served the north French sea routes to Quentovic.

Modern Southampton however did not develop with the site of Hamwih as its centre. In Ipswich it has been shown that ancient routes linked the 7th century quayside, river-crossing and early market and pottery-making areas, which grew rapidly, enclosing a burial-ground in their midst. In the 8th century a planned grid of streets grew up over the cemetery site between the older roads, uniting the expanding districts. Dense Middle-Saxon structures fronted directly onto the made-up streets. The Viking Age ramparts erected around 900 A.D. enclosed some 52 hectares of settlement but fell well within the area already developed. In the same period a new more spacious reconstruction occurred upon the same grid, with cellared houses and surrounding yards. These streets remain the principal streets and lanes of modern Ipswich, and it is not thought that the community has ever been abandoned or deserted.

The 'city' denomination of both London and York rests partly upon the importance of their Roman antecedents, and as two of the principal seats of Christian bishops in late Roman Britain. Gildas stated that trade was busy in London in his time (540s), and in the 7th century it was focused at the Anglo-Saxon centre of Aldwych. But neither these, nor anything that has been shown from the ruins of the abandoned Roman Colonia of Colchester, can be taken to represent the formation of a new township along distinctively early English principles. Ipswich makes that claim. Ipswich is also the birthplace of the Jeshua Joshua King of the East Anglians, who reigned between 450-498 Although this is disputed due to the lack of evidence to support this.

Thatcham

Thatcham in Berkshire is often said to be the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in Britain, since its occupation can be traced back to a mesolithic hunting camp, which was discovered there beside a Post-glacial rebound period lake, and there is evidence of human occupation within and around Thatcham covering the past 13,000 years or more.

There is strong evidence to support the case that people settled in Thatcham in the Mesolithic Age (10,000 BC – 4,000 BC). Thatcham has strong evidence that it was settled by the Romans, then Saxons, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Subsequently, it received medieval charters.

Thatcham has a place in the 1990 Guinness World Records as being the strongest claimant to the longest continually inhabited settlement in the UK. [29] It is mentioned in the 1993 Guinness World Records book as an example of a place with early prehistoric occupation with a comment on the difficulty of showing continuous habitation. [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camulodunum</span> Roman castrum where Colchester, England, now stands

Camulodunum, the Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important castrum and city in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. A temporary "strapline" in the 1960s identifying it as the "oldest recorded town in Britain" has become popular with residents and is still used on heritage roadsigns on trunk road approaches. Originally the site of the Brythonic-Celtic oppidum of Camulodunon, capital of the Trinovantes and later the Catuvellauni tribes, it was first mentioned by name on coinage minted by the chieftain Tasciovanus some time between 20 and 10 BC. The Roman town began life as a Roman legionary base constructed in the AD 40s on the site of the Brythonic-Celtic fortress following its conquest by the Emperor Claudius. After the early town was destroyed during the Iceni rebellion in AD 60/61, it was rebuilt, reaching its zenith in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. During this time it was known by its official name Colonia Claudia Victricensis, often shortened to Colonia Victricensis, and as Camulodunum, a Latinised version of its original Brythonic name. The town was home to a large classical temple, two theatres, several Romano-British temples, Britain's only known chariot circus, Britain's first town walls, several large cemeteries and over 50 known mosaics and tessellated pavements. It may have reached a population of 30,000 at its height.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colchester</span> City in Essex, England

Colchester is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 Census. The demonym is Colcestrian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistoric Britain</span> Prehistoric human occupation of Britain

Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Great Britain for almost a million years. The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints probably made by Homo antecessor. The oldest human fossils, around 500,000 years old, are of Homo heidelbergensis at Boxgrove in Sussex. Until this time Britain had been permanently connected to the Continent by a chalk ridge between South East England and northern France called the Weald-Artois Anticline, but during the Anglian Glaciation around 425,000 years ago a megaflood broke through the ridge, and Britain became an island when sea levels rose during the following Hoxnian interglacial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Somerset</span>

Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE.

<i>Oppidum</i> Iron Age type of settlement

An oppidum is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. Oppida are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretching from Britain and Iberia in the west to the edge of the Hungarian Plain in the east. These settlements continued to be used until the Romans conquered Southern and Western Europe. Many subsequently became Roman-era towns and cities, whilst others were abandoned. In regions north of the rivers Danube and Rhine, such as most of Germania, where the populations remained independent from Rome, oppida continued to be used into the 1st century AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasciovanus</span> Late 1st century BC king of the Catuvellauni tribe

Tasciovanus was a historical king of the Catuvellauni tribe before the Roman conquest of Britain.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Addedomarus</span> 1st century BC king of the British Trinovantes

Addedomarus was a king of south-eastern Britain in the late 1st century BC. His name is known only from his inscribed coins, the distribution of which seem to indicate that he was the ruler of the Trinovantes.

Colchester is a historic former town [now city] located in Essex, England. It served as the first capital of the United Kingdom and is the oldest recorded town in Britain. It was raided by the Vikings during the 9th and 10th centuries. It also served as an essential location for the medieval cloth trade.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistoric Wales</span> History of Wales before AD 48

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of Claudius, Colchester</span> Roman temple in Colchester, England

The Temple of Claudius or Temple of the Deified Claudius was a large octastyle temple built in Camulodunum, the modern Colchester in Essex. The main building was constructed between 49 and 60 AD, although additions were built throughout the Roman-era. Today, it forms the base of the Norman Colchester Castle. It is one of at least eight Roman-era pagan temples in Colchester, and was the largest temple of its kind in Roman Britain; its current remains potentially represent the earliest existing Roman stonework in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistory of Southeast Europe</span> Prehistorical period of Southeastern Europe

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of prehistoric Scotland</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistoric Cumbria</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colchester Vase</span> Roman British vase

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References

  1. ↑ Cox, Mieneke (2013) [1987], The Story of Abingdon: part one (2 ed.), Pieter Cox, p. 19, ISBN   978-1-78280-145-0
  2. ↑ Thomas, Roger (2014), The Archaeology of Abingdon, Abingdon-on-Thames: Abingdon Area Archeological and Historical Society
  3. ↑ Thomas 2014.
  4. ↑ Cox 1987, p. 37.
  5. ↑ Cox 1987, p. 57.
  6. ↑ Cox 1987, p. 76.
  7. ↑ A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4. The borough of Abingdon, British History Online
  8. ↑ "Guide to Abingdon, Oxfordshire". BBC . Retrieved 2 October 2009.
  9. ↑ "Abingdon". Royal Berkshire History. Retrieved 18 January 2008.
  10. ↑ "Frontier territory along the Thames". British Archaeology. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
  11. ↑ "Amesbury in Wiltshire confirmed as oldest UK settlement". bbc.co.uk. 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  12. ↑ Colchester Tourist Board (2011). "Culture and Heritage". visitcolchester.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  13. ↑ Colchester Tourist Board (2011). "Colchester—Britain's Oldest Recorded Town". visitcolchester.com. Archived from the original on 5 January 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  14. ↑ Britain's First City switch. "Colchester rebranded as a city...even though it's a town".
  15. ↑ Colchester tourism site. "visit colchester".
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Crummy, Philip (1997) City of Victory; the story of Colchester - Britain's first Roman town. Colchester Archaeological Trust ( ISBN   1 897719 04 3)
  17. 1 2 Crummy, Philip (1992) Colchester Archaeological Report 6: Excavations at Culver Street, the Gilberd School, and other sites in Colchester 1971-85. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust. ( ISBN   0-9503727-9-X)
  18. ↑ Wymer, J. (1977) (ed.) "Gazetteer of Mesolithic sites in England and Wales", in CBA Research Report 20
  19. 1 2 3 4 Wilson, Roger J. A. (2002) A Guide to the Roman Remains in Britain (Fourth Edition). Published by Constable. ( ISBN   1-84119-318-6)
  20. 1 2 Todd, Malcolm. (1981) Roman Britain; 55 BC - 400 AD. Fontana Paperbacks ( ISBN   0 00 633756 2)
  21. 1 2 Colonia Camulodunensium at romanbritain.org. Retrieved 2/08/2015
  22. ↑ Crummy, Philip (1992) Colchester Archaeological Report 6: Excavations at Culver Street, the Gilberd School, and other sites in Colchester 1971-85. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust ( ISBN   0-9503727-9-X)
  23. 1 2 Crummy, Philip (1984) Colchester Archaeological Report 3: Excavations at Lion Walk, Balkerne Lane, and Middleborough, Colchester, Essex. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust ( ISBN   0-9503727-4-9)
  24. ↑ Iron Age and Roman Colchester, pp 2-18, at British History Online, 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2015
  25. ↑ McCloy A., Midgley A. Discovering Roman Britain, p. 60, at Google Books. Accessed 2 August 2015
  26. 1 2 Faulkner, Neil (1994). "Late Roman Colchester", in Oxford Journal of Archaeology 13(1)
  27. ↑ "History of medieval Ipswich" . Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  28. ↑ Hills, Catherine. "England's Oldest Town" . Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  29. ↑ "Thatcham is still the oldest town". 19 April 2010.
  30. ↑ Matthews, Peter (1992). The Guinness Book of Records 1993. Guinness World Records. p. 175. ISBN   978-0851129785.
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