In 2014 a series of articles were published in the Church Lawford and King’s Newnham Parish Newsletter reflecting the history of the two villages. These articles, written by Liz Parvin (King’s Newnham) and Keith Sinfield (Church Lawford) have been digitised and distributed throughout this archive depending on the period they cover.
Liz Parvin looked at the Roman era in the second article.
The Romans
The Warwickshire Museum website tells us that ‘the Roman period in Britain began in 43 AD when a Roman commander called Aulus Plautius invaded the south coast, near Kent. There were a series of skirmishes with the native Britons, who were defeated. In the months that followed, more Roman troops arrived and slowly moved westwards and northwards’. The Fosse Way, which passes very close to our parishes, was built soon after that, in the middle of the first century AD and probably represents the limit of Roman occupation during the period when Aulus Plautius was Governor of Britain. Another famous Roman road, Watling Street (now the A5) is of course also quite close to us and passes by Tripontium, the major Roman site in the Rugby area. So it is no surprise that there are Roman remains nearby; the surprise is perhaps that there are not very many in Church Lawford and King s Newnham.
Just off Coronation Road the remains of what is believed to have been a Roman temple have been found and there are a couple of sites in the Ling Hall / Wolston Grange area where Roman, or Romano/British ditches and enclosures, plus what is described as “domestic debris’, have been identified. And two Roman coins have been found in the vicinity of St Peter’s Church.
For me the most exciting finds are those in King’s Newnham just behind our house above the old mill; various coins, brooches and pins have been found and it is suggested that there may have been a Roman settlement there. A larger find, of a well, three cremation urns and a burial, was made at the North end of Brown’s Spinney. Other sources suggest that the Romans may have known about the mineral springs in that area (near what was known as Bath Cottage, now Siloam).
Looking a little further afield, there was a settlement known as Venonis at the junction of the Fosse Way and Watling Street (now High Cross) and a Roman fort not far from there at Wigston Parva. So the Romans were definitely here we can only speculate as to how many of them ventured away from the Fosse way into what is now Church Lawford and King’s Newnham!
(Footnote To Liz’s words. A review by the Rugby Archaeological Society can be found here.)