page_title: Letocetum
section_title: Posting station
hierarchical_section_title: Letocetum / History / Posting station
caption_attribution_description: General route of Watling Street overlaid on an outdated map of the Roman road network in Britain
context_page_description: Letocetum is the ancient remains of a Roman settlement. It was an important military staging post and posting station near the junction of Watling Street, the Roman military road to north Wales, and Icknield Street. The site is now within the parish of Wall, Staffordshire, England. 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 as Wall Roman Site.
  The Romans came to Letocetum in 50 CE to establish a fortress during the early years of the invasion of Britain. The land could not support large numbers of soldiers and Letocetum, at an important cross-roads, became a large scale posting station. The settlement developed with successive bath houses and mansiones built to serve the official travellers as well as the growing civilian population. It is known mainly from detailed excavations in 1912–13, which concentrated on the sites of the mansio and bath-house, but there is evidence of a substantial settlement with possible basilica, temples, and amphitheatre.
context_section_description: A mansio was built to provide lodging for official couriers travelling on Watling Street. A bath house was also built for the travellers and the growing civilian population. When the first mansio and bath house were completed, workers were needed to provide wood for the bath house, look after animals, and repair vehicles to be used by the official travellers. The civilian population would have provided many of these services. The native settlement grew during the Flavian period onwards to occupy 8.1–12 hectares (20–30 acres). Roman burials with 1st and 2nd century pottery were found along Watling Street in 1927, and more in 1966. In the field between the mansio site and Watling Street, a round depression in the ground may mark the site of a Roman amphitheatre. A large earthenware vessel in the likeness of Minerva was found near the modern church, which may therefore be the site of a temple of Minerva. A rectangular crop-mark in the field to the north-west of the bath-house, only visible in dry weather, may be the site of another temple.
  When the Legion XIV first settled at Letocetum they would have used existing trackways. A stone-surfaced road was needed to allow reliable movement. Watling Street was given a stone surface past Letocetum in about 70 CE. This date is approximated from two coins found in the centre of Letocetum beneath the first road surfacing. There is no evidence to indicate when Ryknild Street was constructed, but from the layout it is thought that Watling Street was built first. Watling Street stretched from Letocetum to London in one direction and to Wroxeter and Chester in the other. Ryknild Street, 7.3 metres (24 ft) wide where it crossed with Watling Street, connected Letocetum with Cirencester to the south west and Yorkshire to the north east.
caption: Map showing the central position of Letocetum on the Roman road network.
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