The 2003 discovery of a major Roman-period site at Faverdale, on the north-west fringe of Darlington, was completely unexpected. Lying about midway between Dere Street and Cade’s Road, the two major north–south Roman roads traversing the North East, the settlement proved to be a prosperous trading settlement. But it was not one built in the Roman manner. Instead the clusters of roundhouses, enclosures, and ditches were unmistakably indigenous in style. From at least AD 70, the settlement’s inhabitants were able to access Roman objects on a scale unimaginable to those living in the rural North even a generation before. The wealth of Roman artefacts was equally surprising for modern archaeologists.
Traditionally, the lengthy Roman military presence in northern England is not believed to have done much to improve the lot of the native population. As well as the casualties and disruption inflicted during the AD 70s conquest of the region, the later creation of a permanent frontier zone was seen as condemning local producers to economic stagnation. The lingering influence of the Roman military machine stunted the development of civilian structures in the area to the south of Hadrian’s Wall, in contrast to the prosperous towns and villas that emerged in southern England. Away from army bases the North remained a landscape occupied by scattered and poverty-stricken subsistence farmers, unable or unwilling to indulge in the luxuries of Classical living. The result appeared to be two superimposed worlds of occupier and occupied, each interacting with the other as little as possible.
That picture is gradually changing. The identification of a string of villas in the Tees valley, the settlement at Sedgefield astride Cade’s Road, and the evidence for widespread settled farmsteads (see CA 239) is forcing an acknowledgement that some locals were canny enough to cash in on the arrival of a market economy. Estimates place between 30,000-34,000 soldiers in the 2nd- and 3rd-century frontier zone. As well as successfully catering to the needs of a static military force, these North East entrepreneurs chose to use at least some of their new-found wealth to acquire the trappings of their occupiers’ lifestyle. But they did so selectively. Now, the publication of the Faverdale excavations has provided a unique glimpse of how the opportunities brought by the development of a stable frontier moulded a distinctive way of life; one that could be considered truly ‘Romano-British’.
The value of culture