Silchester Roman Town car park

History

Hampshire County Council's Silchester Roman Town walk is a circuit of 2.2 miles from the Silchester Roman Town car park. It runs beside the Roman walls and earthworks of Calleva Atrebatum, visits the amphitheatre and calls at St Mary's church, which the council dates to the 12th century. English Heritage says Silchester was the centre of the Atrebates' Iron Age kingdom from the late 1st century BC and that after the Roman conquest in AD 43 it grew into the town of Calleva Atrebatum, which was defended from about AD 200 and not abandoned until the 6th or 7th century. The amphitheatre lay on the eastern edge of the town, and in the 12th century an aisled hall was built in its arena; the church of St Mary, close to the east gate, is the only surviving physical evidence of medieval Silchester.