Letocetum is a historical site, now known as the village of Wall, Staffordshire, England, being the remains of a Roman settlement. It is owned and run by the National Trust, under the name "Letocetum Roman Baths Site & Museum". The site is in the guardianship of English Heritage. Wall Church in C19 Wall is a small village in Staffordshire, England, just south of Lichfield. ... Staffordshire (abbreviated Staffs) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: England Inter. ... Principal sites in Roman Britain Roman Britain is the term applied to that part of Britain lying within the Roman Empire (which never extended to the whole island). ... The standard of the National Trust The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as The National Trust, NT or The Trust, is an organisation which works to preserve and protect coastline, countryside and buildings in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. ... English Heritage is a United Kingdom government body with a broad remit of managing the historic environment of England. ...
The name Letocetum eventually became associated with the current city of Lichfield. Lichfield Cathedral June 2005 Lichfield is a small city and civil parish in Staffordshire, 110 miles northwest of London and 14 miles north of Birmingham. ...
History
Letocetum was an important staging post near the junction of Watling Street the Roman military road to North Wales (now the A5 road) and Icknield Street or Ryknild Street (now the A38). Watling Street was a Roman road which went from Dover on the southeast coast of England and is generally believed to have terminated at Viroconium (now Wroxeter in Shropshire). ... Marble Arch - the start of the A5 road The A5 is a major road in the United Kingdom. ... Icknield Street or Ryknild Street is a Roman road in Britain that runs from Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire where it connected to the Fosse Way, to Rotherham in South Yorkshire, it went via Alcester, Redditch, the area now covered by Birmingham (where a large fort was located), Lichfield...
There are some remaining ruins and an on-site museum which displays many of the excavated finds.
The Etymology of Letocetum
Letocetum is the latinised version of the Old British "Letoceton"; let - grey, ceton - wooded area; cf modern Welsh llwyd and coed with the same meanings respectively; cf also modern Welsh Caerlwytgoed - Lichfield; caer - fortification.
External links
Letocetum Roman Baths Site & Museum information at the National Trust
Wall Roman Site (Letocetum) information at English Heritage
Letocetum was situated on the boundary between two native British tribes, the Coritani in the east with their tribal centre at Ratae Coritanorum (Leicester), and the Cornovii to the west with their capital at Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter, Shropshire).
Watling Street is one of the most important Roman military highways in Britain, running from Richborough on the Kentish coast in a westerly direction through Canterbury to London, thereafter heading north-west through Saint Alban's to Mancetter in the Midlands, and at Wall turns due west towards the legionary fortresses in north Wales.
Arriving from Mandvessedvm (Mancetter) 11 miles to the south-east, the Watling Street entered the settlement at Letocetum through the east gate of the defensive ramparts, and exited from the west gate running directly westward to Pennocrucium (Water Eaton) 16 miles away.
The exact historical meaning of the word 'Lichfield' is unclear – it was widely believed until recently that the word was related to the Anglo-Saxon 'lych'; thus meaning literally, 'field of the dead'.
Now some have speculated that it is related to the latin 'letocetum', meaning 'grey wood'.
Letocetum is the name of the Roman historical site a few miles away at Wall.
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