Letocetum
A roadside settlement on Watling Street which began as a sequence of military establishments. The largest is a Claudian fort, which may have been the fortress for part or all of Legio XIV before it moved to Wroxeter in A.D. 57. Later there were smaller forts on the hilltop, ending in one of 0.8 ha of early 2d c. date. The civil settlement seems to have been extensive, spreading at least 3.2 km along the road, with a cemetery to the W.
The only building which has been studied is the bath, now under Government guardianship. The first building, late 1st c-early 2d c., was not finished, but by the late 2d c. it was enlarged. In its final stage the rooms appear to have been used as dwellings. Adjacent and connected by an entrance is a courtyard house which may have been the mansio, but it has not been adequately excavated and recorded. The modern name, Wall, was derived from the presence of a massive wall 3.3 m thick which enclosed an area of early 4th c. settlement, with no indication of buildings inside. The name appears in the Antonine Itinerary and Ravenna Cosmography.
BIBLIOGRAPHYMilitary aspects: Trans. Lichfield & S. Staffs. Arch. Hist. Soc. 8 (1966-67) 1-38; burgus: ibid. 5 (1963-64) 1-50; bath: Trans. Birmingham Arch. Soc. 74 (1956) 12-25; JRS 63 (1973) 233.
G. WEBSTER