The Roman Period
Last year I was fortunate enough to discover several Roman finds in the village, and this was the pinnacle of my detecting career so far, and led to many extra hours of walking up and down the same fields just in case I had missed a spot.
I had not previously seen any records of Roman activity in the village but I always hoped that there would be some trace of them, as it is well known that they lived in other parts of Somerset and the levels. The Roman occupation of Britain was started in 43 AD by Emperor Claudius. Within around 4 years the Romans occupied much of Southern England as far as Exeter. The Roman occupation ended in about 410 AD. What we now know to be Somerset was believed to have been a peaceful area of Roman occupation and was not an area of military camps, these would have been on the frontiers with Scotland. There is lots of evidence of Roman habitation to the East of the River Parrett with several villas being discovered over the years. There is however relatively little evidence of Roman occupation westward of this in Taunton Deane. The main Roman road in Somerset was called the Fosse Way and this started in Exeter and went through Somerset to Ilchester and Bath before going to Leicester and Lincoln.
A Fibula and a Roman mosaic showing a Fibula brooch being used
Over the year I managed to find four second century Roman brooches or Fibula as the Romans called them. These were essentially used as large safety pins to fasten their clothes together and the local finds officer at Somerset Council has suggested that they would probably have been lost by a wealthier person rather than a peasant. These finds along with the coins do not provide enough evidence by themselves to suggest that the Romans inhabited the area that we know as Stoke St Gregory. However, I feel that they do provide enough evidence to show that Romans would have been walking through the ridge of land that was later to become Stoke St Gregory. Perhaps they came to this area to hunt as presumably the abundance of wildlife that we have now on the moors was also there in Roman times.
Fragments of a fibula (Roman Brooch) positively identified by the Finds liaison officer as 2nd Century South western ‘T‘ shaped fibula.
In addition to the brooches, I managed to find several Roman coins which included second and fourth century coins that spanned the occupation of Britain. The largest coins, known as sestertius, were made in Rome and brought to Britain. The sestertius still have some visible parts of the emperors portraits on them. One is of Diva Faustina the second, who was Roman Empress from 161 AD to her death in around 175AD. Faustina was the wife of Emperor Marcus Aurelius who was considered one of the five good Roman emperors and was one of the founders of Stoic philosophy or stoicism. In modern day cinema, Marcus Aurelius was played by actor Richard Harris in the film Gladiator. The other sestertius is of Emperor Trajan who ruled from 98-117AD. Trajan was famous for expanding the Roman Empire to the east and improving social welfare, he was also considered one of the five good emperors of Rome. These sestertius coins would have been enough money to buy a couple loaves of bread in Roman times. The other Roman coins are much smaller in size and could have been made in Britain during the occupation.
Large Roman Sestertius. They are about the thickness of a biscuit and the size of a modern 50 pence coin.
Here is a very small copper nummus coin of unknow ruler but likely dating from 330 to 402 AD which puts it at the end of the Roman occupation. The detail is not clear but it possibly shows a helmet.
And here is another copper nummus, this has been identified as being from Emperor Valentinian the first’s reign from 364-375 AD. These coins often depict Valentinian dragging a captive as he was very successful in his battle campaigns.