A Guide to Silchester

Society of Antiquaries, Town plan

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Where is Silchester?

The Iron Age and Roman settlement of Calleva Atrebatum lies in the north of Hampshire in the parish of Silchester, roughly midway between the modern towns of Basingstoke and Reading.

The site is remarkable because, unlike most large Roman towns in Britain, it was completely abandoned. The defensive walls still survive, in places more than 4m high, but within the walls there seems, at first, to be nothing but fields, a church and a single house, once a farm.

Photo, aerial view of site showing insula visible in cropmarks

The Location

The town was built on an easily defensible spur of gravel about 90m above sea level, with commanding views to the east and south and the only access over level ground from the west.

It was originally surrounded on three sides by woodland, growing on the heavy clay soils, and this aspect of the site is enshrined within the Celtic name, which can be translated as (the town in the) woods of the Atrebates.

While the surrounding woodland provided fuel and building materials and hindered easy access to the settlement, the gravel spur itself was more easily cleared for cultivation and building by the first occupants. As the numerous wells on the site demonstrate, water was abundant from about 3-4m below ground surface and from springs around the edge of the gravel.

Plan of the Roman Town

This Guide

The Trustees of the Calleva Museum, who have been producing successive versions of the Guide to the Roman Town since the 1950s, have funded the web version of the Guide to Silchester. The printed version of the Guide (ISBN 0 9512509 1 4) is available from several outlets including the Museum of Reading.