Roman Roads near Dunmow Joining the Forts Together

Harrold Wood     Chelmsford   Chesterford

Great Dunmow is considered by some historians to have been the Roman station Caesaromagus. And was a minor Romano British settlement that had links with other settlements, this was  through the roads linking them together the Roman road, crossing the county from west to east from Hertford to Colchester and with the junction of the Colchester to Braughing (Stane Street/A120) and the Chelmsford to Great Chesterford Roman roads.

  In the 1970s a possible late Roman temple/shrine, votive pits and a dwelling place were found in Dunmow, with a number of Roman coins of different emperors. A large deposit of coins and fragments of jewellery were also found.  

In the early 80s the remains of a settlement were found, it had been thought to be a small settlement but in recent years during 2002 the building of an extension to the local school and old peoples home has found more evidence of a larger settlement the architects uncovered over 100 Roman cremation burials the earliest graves being dated to the first few decades following the invasion of AD43 this cemetery has given important insights into the growth of the local population. In with the cremated remains, were buried pottery vessels, the human bone placed in shallow, rounded, pits, this is very usual for the early Roman period. Several burials included multiple vessels in addition to the cremation urn.

  It is thought that some of the cremated remains had been deposited within wooden caskets of which only iron fixtures and fittings have survived. In the more elaborately decorated graves there were ceramic platters, flagons and drinking vessels, some of the graves had small beakers and cups from Lezoux in South Gaul these were some of the earliest types of samian ware in Britain.

It was interesting that some of the graves contained glass, as this was unusual. Two rare early Roman hand mirrors made of tin-rich copper alloy were found.

    The sites of the graves are on a high spur overlooking both river and road crossings where it has expanded in to a larger settlement.