The History of the Parish of Welford
in West Berkshire

The Romans

During the Roman occupation of these islands, an occupation that lasted for about 400 years, the village of Wickham is known to have become a site for a major settlement.

Wickham is situated on the Roman Ermin Street, a road that connected London to Cirencester.

The Roman legionnaires built a vast network of roads in Britain, firstly to enable soldiers to move about speedily to get to places of unrest and secondly, for commerce. Britain provided the needs of Rome by supplying iron, silver, tin, wool and leathers etc.

As life in Britain became peaceful under Roman rule, (the Romans were in Britain for about 400 years), the roads were also used for social travel. Wickham was a good place for a settlement and a military camp because its commanding height at 540 feet above sea level, made it an excellent vantage point to overlook the surrounding landscape and approach roads.

There was also a branch road off Ermin street, close to Wickham, that lead to the city of Bath where the citizens of Rome could relax and sample the hot mineral springs.

There is a current theory that Wickham was the site of Spinae, (a military camp mentioned in contemporary documents, but yet to be located with any certainty), because of its mid way position between Silchester, near Reading, and Durocorvium, on the Swindon bypass close to Wanborough. - distances that equate to a full days march for the legionnaires. This hypothesis has yet to be proven, but we are working on it.

The idea that Wickham was a significant settlement in Roman times is supported by the fact that large quantities of pottery, tile and Roman coinage has been found in the area and in particular we have found concentrations of sherds, (discarded pieces of broken pottery), which indicates the existence of a kiln or two.

Evidence of the line of the Roman road and its junction has been revealed and these points are shown on the ordinance map. At about the end of the 4th century the Romans began to leave the neighbourhood because the Empire was collapsing. The Saxon chronicles say that by 418AD the Romans had collected all the treasures there were in Britain. Some they hid in the earth in the vain hope that they would return one day and retrieve their fortunes, others they carried to Gaul - the present day France.

The withdrawal of the Romans from Britain was a gradual process rather than a single act, and towards the latter part of the evacuation there was much harassment from Saxon invaders.

It was probably during this time that some treasure was prudently buried. In 1825 a pot containing some 800 Roman coins was dug up in the grounds of Wickham House by some workmen when they were ditching.

This was a substantial treasure, and we can try to imagine the fear and panic that made people bury such a hoard before attempting to escape from the Saxon Hordes.

Unfortunately for us today, the find was shared out in the local inn and dispersed.

There might be more down there to be found.

A similar hoard of coinage was found at Hangmanstone Lane which lies towards the northern tip of the Parish.

We shall now go on to learn about the Saxons.

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