Frome in Wessex
Frome Roman Remains
Abstract
Contents Updated: Thursday, 26 October 2006
The District in Roman Times
The growth of the Roman empire depended on conquest and, having conquered a region, the Romans were keen to exploit its resources. The Mendips were noted for lead and silver and Radstock had, of course, coal. Romans were cold in the British climate and the wealthier ones built heating systems in their villas for which coal was the ideal fuel.
Frome did not exist in Roman times but there are plenty of Roman remains in the area. The main one is, of course, our big sister, Bath, where there are the famous, er… baths. In the days of Samuel Pepys, the town was called “The Bath” rather than simply Bath but it had been famous for its hot springs since before the the Romans, who called Bath Aquae Sulis, after the goddess Sulis.
The Romans, who delighted in bathing, thought the chance to keep warm while enjoying a dip too much to resist. Sulis was the local Celtic goddess, Sul, and the Celts were flattered that their conquerors chose to build a large town and bath in honour of their goddess. The great bath was lined with Mendip lead from Charterhouse, near Cheddar, and Radstock coal burnt perpetually in the local shrine to the goddess, amazing visitors that had never seen it before.
Bath prospered under the Romans for almost 400 years but when they departed to defend the capital against the barbarians, the German tribes of Angles and Saxons, also harried by fiercer tribes to the east, began their invasion. Bath still existed in 577 AD, according to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. St Aldhelm, who founded Frome, consecrated a church to St Michael at Akemancester, the Saxon name for Bath, in about 700 AD, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle again refers to Bath as the “Akemancester, the ancient city” in its account of the year 973 AD. It tells us that this ancient city’s “modern sons” named her Bath.
The Romans built their empire on the basis of efficient communications and transport via their roads. Britain after Claudius conquered it became criss-crossed with ancient freeways or trunk roads. Perhaps the greatest was the Fosse Way, which stretched from Exeter to Lincoln, almost in a straight line, the unusual characteristic of Roman roads.
The Bath Archaeological trust has been excavating at Combe Hay, just outside the southern edge of the town and about ten miles north of Frome and at Clandown near Radstock. The Road towards Bath from the north seems clearly to pass from North Wraxall to Batheaston and on into the city. Further south it is picked up again at Clandown, near Peasemarsh, and from there, it passes between the twin towns of Midsomer Norton and Radstock to head south towards Axminster. Its precise path just south of Bath was not known.
At Combe Hay the road turns out to be quite well preserved and remarkably wide at 20 feet (6.5m). The road surface was of limestone cobbles quarried locally and packed tight. They were cemented together by a fine lime dust forming a smooth hard surface capable of considerable wear, which it evidently got because wheel ruts had worn in them.
The findings have cast doubt on the track of the Fosseway between Radstock and Midsomer Norton at Clandown. The road had been reported as Roman by James McMurtrie in 1894 and 1904, an agent surveying for coal mining prospects. But no unequivocal evidence has been unearthed that this track was part of Fosse Way. The remains are reported as medieval, successive ancient repairs of the roads giving the impression of Roman foundations. However the construction is essentially identical to the road at Combe Hay, so the archaeologists sound as though they are being timid. The road is in the right position and of the right construction, so what prevents the appropriate conclusion. The illustration shows the road surface at Clandown being inspected by museum officials.
