High Cross, Leicestershire
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High Cross is the name given to the crossroads of the
Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...
s of
Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England, running from Dover and London in the southeast, via St Albans to Wroxeter. The road crosses the River Thames at London and was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the M ...
(now the A5) and
Fosse Way The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia ( Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis ( Ilchester), Aquae Sulis ( Bat ...
on the border between
Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...
and
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. A naturally strategic high point, High Cross was "the central cross roads" of Anglo-Saxon and Roman Britain. It was the site of a
Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...
settlement known as Venonae or Venonis, with an accompanying fort. High Cross has marked several frontiers through history. In the Iron Age the area is believed to have been the frontier between the
Corieltauvi The Corieltauvi (also the Coritani, and the Corieltavi) were a Celtic tribe living in British Iron Age, Britain prior to the Roman conquest of Britain, Roman conquest, and thereafter a ''civitas'' of Roman Britain. Their territory was in what is ...
and
Dobunni The Dobunni were one of the Iron Age tribes living in the British Isles prior to the Roman conquest of Britain. There are seven known references to the tribe in Roman histories and inscriptions. Various historians and archaeologists have examin ...
tribes. In the Roman era, the Fosse Way delimited Roman settlement in the early period of occupation. In the later Anglo-Saxon period, Watling Street was the border between the Viking controlled Danelaw and Saxon territory. Reflecting this, the boundaries of four parishes (boundaries which began to be established from the Anglo-Saxon period or even earlier) still meet today at High Cross, while the border between Leicester and Warwickshire, established in the early 11th century, reflects the Danelaw boundary.


Location

High Cross is located eight miles from the point (at Lindley Hall Farm in Fenny Drayton) today identified by the
Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...
as the geographical centre of England. High Cross is the midpoint on the main
watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...
of England: it is situated above three river valleys. The Avon flows southwest to the Severn Estuary and the Irish sea at
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
; the Anker flows West; and the Soar flows North. Both the Soar and the Anker, via the Trent and then the Humber, flow ultimately to the North Sea at Kingston on Hull. As denoted by its name, High Cross is at the top of a hill. An account of the site in a popular magazine of 1827 claimed that, "The ground here is so high, and the surrounding country so low and flat, that it is said, fifty-seven churches may be seen from this spot by the help of a glass elescope" This extensive area of relatively flat land is, on the Warwickshire side, between Rugby and
Bedworth Bedworth ( or locally ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth, Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It is situated between Coventry, 6 miles (9.5 km) to the south, and Nuneaton, to th ...
/
Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...
, referred to by geographers as the ''High Cross Plateau.''See for instance


Roman Era: Venonae

While the exact point of the Roman Fosse Way and Watling Street junction is unknown, historians agree to its location around the current meeting point of the two roads, High Cross. The Roman name ''Venonae'' (also sometimes ''Venonis'' or ''Venoni'') is known from the
Antonine Itinerary The Antonine Itinerary (, "Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is an , a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly in part from a survey carried out under Augustus, it describes t ...
, a contemporary register of the stations and distances along various Roman roads likely produced at the end of the third century. The etymology of the name Venonae is uncertain. Venonae may have been the meeting point for Roman regiments in their final battle against
Boudica Boudica or Boudicca (, from Brittonic languages, Brythonic * 'victory, win' + * 'having' suffix, i.e. 'Victorious Woman', known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh language, Welsh as , ) was a queen of the Iceni, ancient ...
, sometimes called 'The Battle of Watling Street' which would have been fought nearby.


The Roman Settlement

The first Roman structure at High Cross was a fort, located about 1 km to the North West from the current High Cross, dating to the first few years of the Roman occupation (AD 44–47). This was in the period when the Fosse Way represented the limits (if not a formal frontier) of Roman colonisation. The fort predated the Roman construction of Watling Street in the 60sAD, which built over some of the structures of the fort. The fort had two entrances on the North West and south-east sides with a timber gateway on the South East. There was a turf rampart, 3 meters wide and V-shaped ditch. "Internal features located were the cobbled intervallum-street perimeter street that ran around the ramparts part of a barrack-building, and a water-tank near the east angle". The fort was discovered in the late 1960s from the air by the pioneer of aerial archaeology,
Kenneth St Joseph John Kenneth Sinclair St Joseph, (13 November 1912 – 11 March 1994) was an English archaeologist, geologist and Royal Air Force (RAF) veteran who pioneered the use of aerial photography as a method of archaeological research in Britain and Ire ...
. A settlement around the current High Cross site evolved somewhat later than the fort with evidence showing "continuous Romano-British occupation from the late-first to the fourth centuries A.D." Historians of the seventeen and eighteenth century reported very extensive, visible Roman ruins around High Cross, leading to belief that Venonae was a major Roman settlement. However, modern archaeology, undertaken since the start of the 20th century, has found more limited evidence. Historians today usually describes Venonae as a "small town."see eg A 2004 map of the Roman settlement based on the archaeological fieldwork shows - as well as the fort - two enclosures and fortifications in the immediate area around the crossroads and remains of a villa 450 metres due east of the crossroad.


Eighteenth century monument

A stone monunent at High Cross was built in 1712. Funded by the local landowner, the Earl of Denbigh, it celebrated the victories against France by the
Duke of Marlborough General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was a British army officer and statesman. From a gentry family, he ...
as well as marking the centre of Roman Britain. It consisted of four Doric columns with an orb and cross above. It was struck by lightning in 1791 and only the plinth remains today. The stone monument was preceded by a wooden cross and was the site of a medieval gibbet. The two Latin inscriptions on either side the monument have been translated as:


High Cross today

In modern times, this section of Watling Street is now a dual carriageway section of the A5, the southern part of the Fosse Way is a B road, and the northern route of the Fosse is now a track which is a part of a long-distance path called the Leicestershire Round.OS Landranger Map 140 : Leicester, Coventry & Rugby: (1:50 000) Four
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
boundaries meet at High Cross: the Warwickshire parishes of Wibtoft and Copston Magna (historically part of
Monks Kirby Monks Kirby is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in north-eastern Warwickshire, England. The population of the parish is 445. Monks Kirby is located around one mile east of the Fosse Way, around 8 miles north-west of Rugby, ...
parish) and the Leicestershire parishes of Sharnford and Claybrooke Parva (historically part of the single Claybrooke parish with the closely adjacent village of Claybrooke Magna). High Cross is depicted on the coat of arms of Blaby District Council, which is the local authority for the area. Two black diagonal lines on the shield represent Fosse Way and Watling Street.


Notes


References


External links

*{{cite web , website=Roman Britain , url=http://www.roman-britain.co.uk/places/venonis.htm , title=Venonis , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010034212/http://www.roman-britain.co.uk/places/venonis.htm , archive-date=10 October 2018 , access-date=22 November 2019 *
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction
', Vol. X, No. 272, published 8 September 1827 *

', Sylvia Whitworth, Burbage Heritage group. Geography of Leicestershire Transport in Leicestershire History of Leicestershire Scheduled monuments in Leicestershire