PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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It is said that the Romans invaded England in 43 AD and that Exeter, or Isca Dumnoniorum, was founded circa 50 AD. It is further claimed that they built one of their famous roads as far as Totnes but there is no mention in history of the Romans in Plymouth. The road from Totnes into Cornwall was still along the Celtic ridge road. No Roman villas have ever been unearthed in the City so were they ever in the area? There are some tantalising clues. A large collection of Roman coins were discovered in 1888 at Stamford, Plymstock, and in the area around Mount Batten. There have even been odd ones found at Torr and Millbay. At Hooe a bronze figure of Mercury, the God of merchandise, was dug up. But perhaps the biggest signal to a Roman existence in Plymouth was the discovery, in 1882, of a burial ground at Stonehouse. This contained a group of little tombs, made of brick and covered in pebbles. They each measured around four feet in length and two feet in width and faced north to south, as opposed to the Christian east to west direction. Within the tombs were heaps of ashes containing human bones. This discovery lends support to the claim that the name Stonehouse originated because the later Saxon settlers found there the unusual remains of a house built of stones. To men who used wood for everything this would indeed have been noteworthy. Could this building have been a Roman villa or, perhaps, a building of less notable standing? The Romans withdrew from England in about 406 AD but although the Saxons had started to settle in this country around 450 AD, there is nothing to suggest they had reached the Plymouth area at that time.
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