Braughing was a substantial roadside settlement in the Hertfordshire valley of the River Rib, occupying ground around the modern villages of Braughing and Puckeridge. Although a Roman small town developed here from the later first century CE and continued into the fourth, the site has deeper roots as a major Late Iron Age centre (Skeleton Green and surrounding sites), making it one of the most important pre-conquest oppida-type complexes in southern Britain. At its Roman peak it was a sprawling nucleated settlement of perhaps 30+ hectares with timber strip buildings, industrial activity, and a road network linking Ermine Street with Stane Street.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Braughing's significance lies in its continuity from a major Late Iron Age trading centre — receiving substantial volumes of imported Italian wine amphorae and Gallo-Belgic finewares before the conquest — into a thriving Roman small town serving as a local market and route node north of Verulamium. It was never walled or formally promoted but functioned as an economic hub for its rural hinterland.
Excavations from the 1970s onwards, notably Clive Partridge's work at Skeleton Green, Puckeridge and Wickham Kennels, have revealed Iron Age and Roman occupation including timber buildings, wells, cremation cemeteries, extensive ceramic assemblages, brooches and coins, and evidence of metalworking. The site is not fully published in syn
Braughing was a substantial roadside settlement in the Hertfordshire valley of the River Rib, occupying ground around the modern villages of Braughing and Puckeridge. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Braughing 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 Roman site near railway station (1.6 km), Section of Roman road in Rigery Lane (5.1 km), Youngsbury Roman barrows (7.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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