Great Chesterford
Great Chesterford is a village in Essex ( United Kingdom ), near which the remains of a Roman city are located. The ancient name of this city is still unknown.
The Roman remains of Great Chesterford are among the oldest in Britain . A military camp dates back to the time of the first British campaign by Aulus Plautius , in the year 43 AD. A second military camp was established in the second half of the first century. After the military left, a considerable settlement with an urban character arose here, covering an area of around 14 hectares. The city map does not show a regular structure, unlike many other Roman cities. Most of the buildings were made of wood; but there are also stone buildings, which were mainly found in the center of the city next to a large square, which was probably a market square. To the north of this square was an octagonal building that may have been a temple. In the fourth century, a city wall was built that partially built over older houses. A cemetery was also found during excavations. At some distance from the city there was a Gallo-Roman temple inside a Temenos wall . This was decorated with wall paintings and had an inscription in metal letters. There was also a small silver plate with the bearded face of a deity. Next to the temple, sacrificial pits with the bones of over 1000 lambs were discovered. Outside the temple fence there were various buildings, perhaps apartments and workshops that belonged to the temple district. An Anglo-Saxon cemetery could also be excavated, which shows a certain continuity of settlement into the Middle Ages.
The name Great Chesterford is mentioned for the first time in a charter from 1004. The village church dates back to the 13th century.
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Coordinates: 52 ° 3 ′ 59.4 " N , 0 ° 12 ′ 13.7" E