The metal plaque, that is mounted on a
brick wall above head height, reads:
City of
Rochester
The line of granite
setts laid in the
footway denotes the limit of the old
Roman city wall
which still exists some
few feet below the footway
surface
The Medway
Council website tells us:
"Although Julius Caesar led
expeditions into Kent in 55 and 54 BC, it was not until AD 43 that Britain
became part of the Roman Empire, conquered by an invading army sent by the
Emperor Claudius. Aulus Plautius, the victorious general, became Britain’s first
Governor. Kent was split into two halves: the west was governed from Rochester,
Medway’s first walled town. The Romans called this settlement Durobrivae,
meaning “the stronghold by the bridges.”
Most small-scale farmers in Medway
probably continued working in the same fashion as they had before the conquest.
While Latin became the official language for business, law and government, the
native British language remained in use in daily life. People with larger farms
or estates began to build new Roman-style houses called villas.
A road system was built through
Medway, based around Watling Street, the main route from London to Dover now
followed by the A2. The new roads, together with improved port facilities,
opened up Britain even more to the wider world and supported growing industries
such as the Medway potteries.
Periods of unrest in the empire
during the fourth century AD affected government in Britain. When the legions
were finally withdrawn at the start of the fifth century, Britain entered an
obscure period of change as Germanic settlers from northern Europe migrated to
southern and eastern Britain and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were
born."
The same website also tells of a 'mystery':
"In 1974, during thePhoto of Roman
remains widening of Corporation Street in Rochester, some buildings which had
been standing along the line of the Roman city wall were demolished. The
opportunity was taken to dig the area for finds relating to the history of the
city. On the site next to George Lane, among the usual Roman debris and small
domestic items, there was a surprise. In the bank below the wall, the
archaeologists found a shallow grave containing the skeleton of a
woman.
The legs of the skeleton had been
removed at the hips by the digging of a rubbish pit much later but the arms were
still ornamented with no less than 15 pieces of bronze jewellery, some of which
can be seen at the Guildhall Museum. They were dated roughly to the middle of
the fourth century AD. Further study of the skeleton established that our Roman
woman must have been about 35 when she died.
The discovery of the body was the
more surprising because, during the Roman period, burial inside the city walls
was strictly forbidden and highly illegal. It seems safe to assume that this
burial therefore took place without the knowledge of the authorities and if that
was the case, perhaps the death itself was irregular and secret. Does the museum
today contain the only remaining evidence of a 1,700 year-old
murder?"