Braintree (Roman name uncertain, sometimes tentatively identified with Canonium, though that is more usually placed at Kelvedon) was a small roadside settlement in northern Essex, occupied from the mid-1st century AD through to the 4th century. It developed at the junction of two Roman roads — Stane Street running east–west between Colchester and Braughing, and a north–south route linking Chelmsford (Caesaromagus) with Long Melford — giving it the character of a minor nucleated settlement or "small town" serving local agricultural hinterland and through traffic.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its importance lay in its function as a road junction settlement, providing services for travellers and acting as a local market and craft-production centre between the larger centres of Camulodunum (Colchester) and Caesaromagus (Chelmsford). It is one of a string of such minor settlements that articulated the road network of the civitas Trinovantum.
Rescue excavations within the modern town (notably from the 1970s onwards) have revealed timber buildings, roadside ditches, pits, ovens, and evidence of iron-working and pottery use, with finds including Samian ware, coins, and brooches indicating sustained occupation through the Roman period. No substantial stone public buildings have been identified, consistent with its modest scale; the full plan of the settlement remains imperfectly understood beneath the modern town centre.
Braintree (Roman name uncertain, sometimes tentatively identified with Canonium, though that is more usually placed at Kelvedon) was a small roadside settlement in northern Essex, occupied from the mid-1st century AD through to the 4th century. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Braintree is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Leez Augustinian Priory, fishponds and Tudor mansion, Leez (7.9 km), Roman villa, Anglo-Saxon hall, cemetery and church site, around and to the north and east of St Mary and All Saints Church (8.7 km), Rivenhall (8.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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