Paulerspury – Development and Heritage [Battle of Watling Street]

5/10/2025 Brave search: battle of watling street cuttle mill mass of ancient human remains Cuttle Mill UK
Cuttle Mill Human Remains
The Battle of Watling Street, a significant conflict between the Romans and the Britons led by Queen Boudica, took place around 61 CE. While the exact location of the battle is debated, one proposed site is Cuttle Mill, located about 2 miles southeast of Towcester in Northamptonshire. This location is supported by its topographical features, which match the description provided by Tacitus, including a defile with a wood behind it.

Excavations at Cuttle Mill have revealed a large number of human remains, suggesting that this site could indeed be the location of the battle. The discovery of a mass grave containing over 1,000 soldiers has been linked to the Battle of Watling Street, providing strong evidence for the site's historical significance.

These findings, along with other archaeological artifacts such as Roman military equipment and British weapons, have helped historians piece together the events of the battle and its aftermath.

AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts.

Medieval Wanderings | The Feisty Folk of Medieval Towcester | Alli Templeton | July 15, 2021
As the oldest continuously inhabited site in the county with evidence of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic period, the Towcester of today occupies the site of an Iron Age settlement within the bend of the River Tove. In AD 43 the Romans decided this would be a great place to plant a town, being close to a junction of two of their new military roads, so they took over the site, developed it and called it Lactodorum. One of those new roads was Watling Street, the major route stretching from the south east to the north west, and it's believed that it was along this road, at a place called Cuttle Mill just two miles from Towcester, that the rebel queen Boudicca and her forces were finally overcome by the Romans in AD 61.

Wikipedia | Boudica | Defeat and death
Suetonius regrouped his forces. He amassed an army of almost 10,000 men at an unidentified location, and took a stand in a defile (a narrow pass) with a wood behind. The Romans used the terrain to their advantage, launching javelins at the Britons before advancing in a wedge-shaped formation and deploying cavalry.

The Roman army was heavily outnumbered — according to Dio the rebels numbered 230,000 — but Boudica's army was crushed, and according to Tacitus, neither the women nor the animals were spared. Tacitus states that Boudica poisoned herself; Dio says she fell sick and died, after which she was given a lavish burial. It has been argued that these accounts are not mutually exclusive.

Wikipedia | Gaius Suetonius Paulinus | Governor of Britain
In 58 AD, before being consul, he was appointed governor of Britain, replacing Quintus Veranius, who had died in office. He continued Veranius's policy of aggressively subduing the tribes of modern Wales, and was successful for his first two years in the post... Two future governors served under him: Quintus Petillius Cerialis... and Gnaeus Julius Agricola...

Around 60 or 61 AD Suetonius made an assault on the island of Mona (Anglesey), a refuge for British fugitives and a stronghold of the druids. The tribes of the south-east took advantage of his absence and staged a revolt, led by queen Boudica of the Iceni. The colonia of Camulodunum (Colchester) was destroyed, its inhabitants tortured, raped, and slaughtered, and Petillius Cerialis's legion routed. Suetonius brought Mona to terms... and marched along the Roman road of Watling Street to Londinium (London), the rebels' next target, but judged he did not have the numbers to defend the city and ordered it evacuated. The Britons duly destroyed it, the citizens of Londinium suffering the same fate as those of Camulodunum, and then did the same to Verulamium (St Albans).

Suetonius regrouped with the XIV Gemina, some detachments of the XX Valeria Victrix, and all available auxiliaries. The II Augusta, based at Exeter, was available, but its prefect, Poenius Postumus, declined to heed the call. Nonetheless, Suetonius was able to assemble a force of about ten thousand men. Heavily outnumbered (the Britons numbered 230,000 according to Cassius Dio), the Romans stood their ground.

The resulting battle took place at an unidentified location in a defile with a wood behind him, probably in the West Midlands somewhere along Watling Street – at Cuttle Mill, 2 miles southeast of Towcester in Northamptonshire, in front of a narrow defile which answers the topographical description of Tacitus, human bones have been found over a large area...

The Britons' flight was impeded by the presence of their own families, whom they had stationed in a ring of wagons at the edge of the battlefield, and defeat turned into slaughter. Tacitus heard reports that almost eighty thousand Britons were killed, compared to only four hundred Romans. Boudica poisoned herself, and Postumus, having denied his men a share in the victory, fell on his sword.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.