For centuries the island of Britain was home to a mix of Celtic tribes, living at varying levels of development and with differing degrees of contact with the wider world. Their existence drew fleeting Roman interest in 55–54 BC, when Julius Caesar crossed the Channel twice on short punitive expeditions against certain south‑coast tribes that he believed were aiding their fellow Celts in Gaul. Almost a hundred years later, though, in 43 AD, Celtic control of Britain came to an abrupt end when the Romans returned for good. Establishing a firm foothold in Kent and Essex, these disciplined invaders pushed inland, defeating or overawing the native inhabitants and securing their new province with a growing network of roads that they built as they moved inland. The Roman army advanced in three battle groups, each built around a legion. Legio II moved into the south‑west towards Somerset and Devon, Legio IX marched north towards Lincoln, and Legio XIV headed into the west midlands, establishing bases at Shrewsbury and Chester by around 50 AD. It was therefore in about 48–49 AD, five years after the initial landings, that the first Roman soldiers entered what would become the county of Staffordshire.
Although South Staffordshire shows abundant evidence of Roman occupation, the north of the county was at that time a sparsely inhabited expanse of woodland and rough, hilly ground, that was largely unsuitable for farming. The Romans appear to have found little of value there and only scattered forts, small settlements and a handful of villas being constructed. North Staffordshire seems to have simply been a wild region through which military and civilian traffic passed en route to more important or profitable destinations.
The route these travellers took was the Roman trunk road that once linked Derby with Chester, a route along which some Roman sites have been discovered. Local historian John Ward in his history The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent, lists the road as the ‘Via Devana or Rikeneld Street’ (i.e. Rykeneld Street) an identification lent support by the Street being mentioned by name as a boundary of lands in Normacot granted to Hulton Abbey in 1223. From east to west, the road entered the county at Rochester, where an auxiliary fort—possibly occupied by a cavalry regiment—and its accompanying vicus (a trading settlement or village outside the fort) were established. From there it ran just south of Uttoxeter, then cut across country towards present-day Stoke-on-Trent, passing through what are now Tean, Blythe Bridge, Meir, Normacot, part of old Longton, Fenton and on to Stoke, where it crossed the River Trent. In 1887, workmen carrying out road improvements uncovered part of the Roman roadway near Stoke church, apparently the approach to the Trent crossing. Other sections have been found in Campbell Place, Stoke, in King Street, Longton and in Honeywall. Many Roman coins have been found all along the line of this old road, some in Stoke but the majority in Longton, where in 1960 a resident of Lightwood Road was digging in his garden and found an earthenware pot containing 2,461 coins 1,739 of which were Roman coins of the 3rd century. More recently in 2015 another large cache of over 2,000 coins and other items were discovered at Barlaston, which though some miles from the line of the Roman road, is certainly within it’s catchment area. The dates of the various coin finds along the road show that it remained in use throughout the entire period of Roman occupation in Britain.
The road may then have continued to Etruria before passing through present‑day Hartshill, Basford and May Bank towards Chesterton, where, as the name suggests, another small auxiliary fort stood. Built in the early Flavian period c.70 AD, this replaced an earlier temporary fort at Trent Vale that had been abandoned. A 16th to early 17th century antiquarian, Sampson Erdeswicke, noted in his work A Survey of Staffordshire that the rubble he found on the site ‘Rubbish of Stone and Lime’, suggested that the fort had once possessed walls of ‘marvellous thickness’ hinting at stone-built walls rather than a wooden palisade, though as Robert Plot notes in his Natural History of Staffordshire if that was the case none of these seem to have survived to the early 1680s when he visited the site, the valuable dressed stone most likely having been robbed away for use in other later buildings. More modern surveys have found the remains of a clay oven and cookhouse built into the supporting rampart and the remains of a bath house have been unearthed most likely outside the fort. Not far removed from the fort the remains of a marching camp has also been discovered off Loomer Road.
Although pottery was a major industry in Roman Britain, surprisingly little seems to have been produced in North Staffordshire. Yet in 1958 the remains of a Roman updraught pottery kiln, together with evidence of a potter’s workshop beside it, were uncovered at Trent Vale. Dating to around 50 AD, the pottery was probably established to serve the military and appears to have produced a wide range of wares. These included flagons, storage jars, cinerary urns, bowls, cooking pots, lamp holders, incense burners and Samian‑style platters, along with more unusual pieces such as a so‑called ‘face vase’, a globular pot bearing a roughly moulded human face on one side. At a nearby civilian settlement at Holditch, some fragments of this ‘Trent Vale’ ware have been found, which proves that the pottery was used locally. Pottery fragments have also been found on the site of the fort at Chesterton, though none of these appear to have originated from the Trent Vale pottery. This is surprising as much of the pottery produced there was of high quality for the period, especially a group of gravel‑flecked pots that had been turned, finished and then decorated. Eight of these formed the kiln’s final load and were sealed inside when the clay roof collapsed during firing.
The potter’s workshop, a wattle‑and‑daub structure with a thatched roof, was at some point destroyed by fire. As it stood dangerously close to the kiln, the nearest post hole lying less than two feet from the stoke hole, it is highly likely that sparks or flames from the collapsing oven ignited the building. There is no evidence that anyone died in the blaze, though some personal belongings such as buttons and coins were trapped in the debris. The Roman or Romano‑British potters who worked there also seem to have enjoyed games of chance in their leisure time, as several glass‑paste gaming counters were found on the site.
The Trent Vale kiln was probably fuelled with wood from the local forests, but there is some evidence that coal was being used here in the Roman period. A number of small Roman industrial sites have been uncovered near to the River Trent in Bucknall, which were probably used for the smelting and forging of iron.
Reference: Anthony Bell, ‘Excavations at Rocester, Staffordshire, by Fiona Sturdy in 1964 and 1968’, in Staffordshire Archaeological Studies, New Series, Nº3 1986, pp.20-51; Gary Cooper, Farmers and Potters (2002) pp. 13-14; Sampson Erdswicke, A Survey of Staffordshire (1723), p.9; Robert Plot, The Natural History of Staffordshire (1686), chapter 10, paragraph 67, p.434; John Ward, The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent (1843) pp. 8-17. See also entries for Chesterton Roman fort in The Journal of Antiquities -https://thejournalofantiquities.com/2013/08/09/chesterton-roman-fort-north-staffordshire/; and Roman Britain -https://www.roman-britain.co.uk/places/chesterton/; Staffordshire Newsletter, 13 December 2016.
