BOUDICA'S LEGACY - The hidden capital of the Iceni

[@ricardo-lq4bq3pp3l]

I used to live half a mile from Venta Icenorum and often wandered round the walls. A lovely quiet place.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

I've been a few times over the years, it's a lovely peaceful place isn't it? Thanks for watching

[@CAROLINECROUTES]

What an interesting video, many thanks. Incredible how much remains after 2000 years, it's every bit as interesting as Hadrian's Wall.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

Thank you Caroline. Always amazes me what remains after so long. These places are better IMO than Hadrian's Wall.

[@ianpotter5840]

Beautifully shot with very high quality explanatory graphics and excellent narrative as always. Many thanks

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@ianpotter5840 Thanks Ian, glad you liked it

[@margaretflounders8510]

@@PASTFINDERexploring I was getting very excited as you went along! we live in Bury St. Edmunds, and often go to Woodbridge, and Sutton Hoo, which is still being excavated by Time Team in 2025!..I wanted to see the site of the Iceni but it's been closed to the public now..I wondered if Thetford had anything left of interest?

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@margaretflounders8510 Hi Margaret, thanks for watching. Been watching the Time Team development on Sutton Hoo, fascinating.

[@fhwolthuis]

Beautiful documentary 👌😃

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@fhwolthuis Thanks for watching Frank, appreciated.

[@davidscott3292]

So well done - not least the excellent diagrams.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@davidscott3292 Thank you David, your comments are very much appreciated

[@davidberlanny3308]

Hi Bob, Very impressive, so much to see there, not least the ramparts and earthworks which you quick rightly point out are just as important. Some great drone clips really give you a great idea of the size of the place. Two things for your Christmas present list: A machete, and some sting nettle cream Great video well done. All the best!!

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@davidberlanny3308 Thanks David. Venta has spectacular Roman ramparts, probably the best I've seen. An easy solution to the stings would be some long trousers but that's far too easy. Appreciate your comments.

[@chesterdays2299]

Fascinating, and a great video. Thank you.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@chesterdays2299 Thanks Julian, thanks for watching

[@kevcaratacus9428]

Very interesting to actually see the place. Ive watched, replied to many videos about Boudiccan / iceni uprising. I've read quite a bit, including archaeological details. ..But ive never been to the remains of the post-uprising Roman city. So watching your video is the next best thing. I really liked the way you incorporated a scale plan showing the wall & exterior boundary ditches along with the interior grid system , roads & insulae. Along with excellent footage boundary to boundary. I knew it wasn't a large city but i was surprised to see how small it was. I was surprised to see the turret was solid stone, i expected the other side to have remains of a doorway kinda like a medieval castle. I guess there would've been a wooden structure a watchtower at the top. 👍

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@kevcaratacus9428 Hi Kev, It is small for a civitis capital although larger than Caerwent in South Wales. Think I read that the Tower could be Hollow and would have been reached by a short wooden walkway from the wall. Thanks for watching, appreciated.

[@FlyingForFunTrecanair]

Yet another splendid film!

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@FlyingForFunTrecanair Thank-you, appreciated

[@openmicfraternity1946]

Another excellent video. I know Silchester well and have visited Wroxeter but I’ll have to pay a visit to this one too now.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@openmicfraternity1946 Cheers, that's the 3 former Roman sites that weren't inhabited I've visited. All of them lovely and peaceful.

[@kevinedw2002]

Great video. Very much looking forward to the next! Subbed!

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@kevinedw2002 Great stuff, thanks Kevin, appreciated

[@ODDwayne1]

Great tour friend. Thank you for the time you spend. Giving you a new follower from Texas.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@ODDwayne1 Dwayne, thank you, appreciated.

[@danelawman2516]

I also live there.....beautiful spot , great to be there when on your own with time to reflect!

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

Agreed, very peaceful place.

[@boosterhuiz2779]

Fabulous. Loved the walk around to a pace I will probably never get to. Felt like I was there too. Subscribed, so you have a lot to live up to ;)

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@boosterhuiz2779 Thank you, glad you liked it.

[@alanhay-i5d]

very interesting thanks, inspired to visit now

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@alanhay-i5d Thank you for watching. Glad I've inspired.

[@rhonataylor85]

Great video!

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@rhonataylor85 Thanks Rhona, appreciate your comment

[@ddunn3489]

Thank you for the History of that place.👍👍

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@ddunn3489 you're welcome. Thank you for watching

[@christophernewman5027]

I enjoyed that very much. 😊 Subbed

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@christophernewman5027 Thanks Christopher, very much appreciated

[@IanLawrie-l9q]

Great video 👍🏻 although I shall not stop calling the lady Boadicea.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@IanLawrie-l9q Don't think we really know the proper pronunciation. I used the Latinised one. Thanks for watching

[@stephencrowther524]

@@PASTFINDERexploring She certainly wouldn’t have called herself Boadicea.

[@kelrogers8480]

Exactly! Who knows, maybe she identified as a bloke, a packet of rice krispies - or a cat!

[@mrorinocobottle9371]

We learned Boudicca at school.

[@kelrogers8480]

@mrorinocobottle9371 you learned lots of things, at school. Sadly, that doesn't make them correct.

[@dreamok732]

There is a small ramparted fort in Epping Forest claimed to be the site of the last stand of the Iceni princes

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@dreamok732 There are numerous site around the country claiming to be where the final battle took place. Bottom line is, nobody knows.

[@pcka12]

​@PASTFINDERexploring maybe there was more than one 'last stand' from a more generalised rebellion?

[@philreeves7361]

Amesbury Banks near Epping also Loughton camp was within easy striking distance of Londinium. Also there are two curiously named fields next to the River Roding at the nearby village of Abridge. They may have been the scene of a desparate last ditch Roman defence line.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@pcka12 you could well be right. The only documentary evidence by Tacitus & Dio were written over 100 years after the event.

[@thedukeofearl.7764]

What a fantastic informative video. If only the site could talk. What could it tell us.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@thedukeofearl.7764 or even a time machine to just give a glimpse. Thanks for watching

[@750triton]

Is it mere coincidence that, in the aerial map 21:34 from the north west corner where the road is now, lines up with what looks like a diagonal road across the site, which also lines up with what looks like a path from the south west corner, again, to another road?

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@750triton Hi, it's a distinct possibility. Could have been a road prior to being blocked of by the defences.

[@richardmiddleditch8859]

the Iceni were in Suffolk as well as Norfolk meny coins found in suffolk

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@richardmiddleditch8859 you are correct as was depicted in the map.

[@AnEnemy100]

Opened to the public in 1993? It was never closed. There used to be cows grazing within the site but it was accessible. The field outside the south rampart used to be ploughed, and heavily. Lots of bits of Samian ware, glass, parts of amphora, mortaria, tiles, oyster shells and bones would be ploughed up and you could see it all round the edges of the field.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@AnEnemy100 I think it refers to having a bit of money spent on a tidy up. The place is crying out for another dig. Not had one since late 1990s in think.

[@AnEnemy100]

@ I think University of Nottingham did some work here also lots of Lidar. And there was a dig nearby recently where a subterranean aqueduct was exposed.

[@AllensTrains]

When a modern town has been built over a former Roman settlement, you don't think anything about it. Only when you come across a Roman road to nowhere, and the remains of the settlement in the wilderness, does it seem interesting! You might make a series of videos about the Roman forts of the Saxon Shore, and compare them to each other. Roman mortar lasts such a long time because it is made from montmorillonite and ash. This type of mortar is not used in the present day because it takes a very long time to set. But that didn't matter to the Romans, who could keep men on site while the mortar dried. The Roman forts notably at Pevensey, have layers of tiles, as a course of stonework had to be left to dry until the next course of stonework could be added. Thanks for uploading.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@AllensTrains Hi, thanks for the Roman mortar info, I didn't know that. Explains a lot. In my home city of Chester they came across some that was so hard the only way to remove it was with explosives. Bloody vandalism. Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@BRIANJAMESGIBB]

A lovely persmbulation :)

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@BRIANJAMESGIBB Thanks Brian yup, it was enjoyable. Thanks for watching

[@anthonymoore6009]

Blisteringly good

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@anthonymoore6009 Thanks, it was a good one to make.

[@danielferguson3784]

The wall was not built on top of the rampart, but in front of it & rising higher. The rampart thus became the back support of the wall. The rampart was earlier, & was cut away at the front for the stone wall to be set into the front of it. The wall would have turned in at the gates to support the rampart where it was open. The line of the streets within the city are clear, especially in the aerial shots. Much of the stonework is left buried by the slumped earthworks to protect it from further erosion. Originally there would have been no slope or embankment outside in front of the wall, but the wall would have risen vertically from the flat berm between the ditch & wall. The apparent rampart in front of the wall is just earthwork slump, not a deliberate defensive feature. These old Roman sites were very often given to the Church by Anglo-Saxon Kings, as they were still considered 'state property'. It is also likely that, as at Calleva, the existing church sits on an older temple site, or within a 'sacred' region of the former Roman City. These Roman defensive enclosures where also used as Royal sites, some designated as 'Villa Regias', with Royal lodgings & often the production of official specialist items of metalwork etc, such as weapons & coins. They were rarely fully occupied until much later, but considered reserved for special uses. It was only really because of the 'viking' wars that such places were sometimes reoccupied & manned fully, as at London under King Alfred. Others became the sites of later castles, because of the ready made defences, if the site was strategic at the time. Others, such as this Venta Icenorum, were never re-occupied much, because other sites took over their local role, in this case Norwich itself, because it was better placed on the river, just as Reading replaced Calleva.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@danielferguson3784 Hi Daniel thanks for watching. Caistor displays you are correct and potentially not. The North wall supports your theory however the wonderful slope either side of the rampart on the east wall does not. These ramparts were constructed to accompany the wall in the late 3rd century and are believed to be contemporary with it. I suspected that much of the wall still exists albeit in a buried state along with the gates. It's a shame one isn't visible. It's a great site isn't it.

[@kevcaratacus9428]

Theres also a saxon church in the centre of Verulamium, built on top of the Roman basilica . The whole settlement was given to the church most of the buildings/ brick etc were recycled used to build the large Abbey/ cathedral on the hill across the river Ver.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@danielferguson3784 I think the reason for the churches are extensions of the very early 4th Century Roman Christian rebuilt numerous times on the same site.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@kevcaratacus9428 Great KZbin name by the way

[@philreeves7361]

Thank you for an exellent film. My first thought is that it could have been an open prison with a plentiful supply of slave labour to hand.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@philreeves7361Thank you, appreciated

[@LilyGazou]

Amazing the place is preserved from development.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@LilyGazou It's protected, although that tends mean less as time goes on.

[@NorfolkNomad-UK]

There is a round barrow near me known locally as Boadicea's grave (video on my channel), no evidence this is actually her grave but as they say 'no smoke without fire'.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@NorfolkNomad-UK Loads of features associated with Boudica from Cornwall to Scotland. One of them might just be the place. Thank you foe watching.

[@flachi32]

What was the population at the time of Boudicca?

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@flachi32 venta icenorum wasn't constructed until around 70AD. Nine years after Boudica.

[@kgbaddley]

“Though never excavated the amphitheatre area has not been confirmed”. Hardly a clever conclusion, that!

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@kgbaddley aerial and geophysical surveys. Basically an educated guess.

[@onbedoeldekut1515]

Was the area waterlogged in Roman times? When did Norfolk become the dry farmland we know today?

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@onbedoeldekut1515 just looked this up on the back of your question. Apparently the wetlands are man made during Medieval times. Who knew!

[@stephenpodeschi6052]

It looks like a good reconstruction project for living history tourism and TV/movie location ......Uhm ?

[@williamwallace4924]

Real indigenous Celtics of these islands.

[@theshamanarchist5441]

I believe she was invented by the Romani.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@theshamanarchist5441 Hi, how do you come to that conclusion?

[@kevans920]

Cardiff was a Roman Fort/town. Excavations have shown there to be at least 4 Roman Forts there. I know Roman stone work when I see it.

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@kevans920 yes it was a Roman fortress, not a town. It's lower walks contain Roman masonry. The current medieval castle was built over the fortress and incorporated Roman masonry. My statement was the only surviving Roman intact parapet on a Roman town, not fortress.

[@kevans920]

Cardiff has a walkway on it,

[@PASTFINDERexploring]

@@kevans920 Cardiff wasn't a Roman town and the walkway will be medieval.

[@kevans920]

@PASTFINDERexploring I'm afraid your wrong on that. If you go into the medieval wall there is an almost perfect section of Roman wall up to and including the walkway.