_Where to find Boudicca and Romans in Norfolk

Where can we find Boudicca today?

Norfolk has a rich and varied history of invasion and conquest, including the Anglo Saxons and Normans, but it was the Romans who came here first and put their stamp on the county for a few centuries, punctuated by a period of unrest known for Britain’s most famous warrior queen, Boudicca. Or maybe Boudicea?

Nowadays the Roman story in Norfolk can be seen at the magnificent Roman shore fort Burgh Castle near Great Yarmouth, in the footprint of their regional capital at Venta Icenorum at Caistor St Edmund near Norwich, and what we know of Norfolk Queen Boudicca and her Iceni tribe.

Boudicca or Boudicea?

Boudicca comes from the old proto-Gaelic word Boudeg which translates as ‘Victory’, so the word properly is Boudega – ‘She who Brings Victory’. Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote about her in the first century, used the spelling Boudicca, which is considered the most accurate representation of her name.

Boadicea is thought to have come from a transcription error made by medieval scribes. The name may have been altered due to the way letters were copied, particularly the transformation of 'u' into 'a' and the second 'c' into an 'e'. This name became popularised during the Victorian era when the Iceni queen was mythologised.

How do you pronounce Iceni?

It's commonly pronounced as eye-see-knee. The tribe was Late Iron Age and a Celtic society. It's possible Julius Caesar had the first recorded contact with the tribe in 55-54 BC when he wrote about a tribe known as Cenimagni, the Great Ceni - presumed to be the Great Iceni.

The tribe were isolated, much of their territory being North Sea coastline and the impenetrable watery marsh of the Fens. Most other tribes intermingled. This isolation brought a strong tribal identity.

Did Boudicca come from Norfolk?

Queen Boudicca, a great British heroine whose statue stands today on Westminster Bridge opposite Big Ben, ruled the Iceni tribe with King Prasutagus. It's possible she was the daughter of another tribal king. 

When the Romans conquered most of England in AD 43, they let Prasutagus continue to rule, but when he died in AD 59 or 60 they were outraged and insulted that he left wishes for his kingdom to be split in two, leaving half to Roman emperor Nero and the other half to Boudicca. 

Under Roman law a woman had no right to inherit her husband’s property, so they decided to rule the Iceni directly and confiscate all the tribe’s property. It is claimed they stripped and flogged Boudicca and violated her two daughters.

Why did Boudicca rebel against the Romans?

Unsurprisingly, Boudicca wasn’t happy and amid growing resentment at Roman rule she took the opportunity to rise up against the oppressors while Roman governor Gauis Suotonius Paulinus was heading a campaign in North Wales.

Boudicca’s marauding Brythonic tribe defeated the Roman Ninth Legion and razed the-then capital of Roman Britain at Camulodunum, now Colchester, in AD60. It had been the first Roman settlement in Britain and its destruction was a statement to the invaders.

Undefended by ramparts and with a population of mainly retired veterans, many with British wives and children, the city fell easily. Tacitus wrote: 'All else was plundered or fired in the onslaught. The temple where the soldiers had assembled, was stormed after a two days' siege'. Everyone was massacred.

Camulodunum had been the first Roman settlement in Britain and its destruction was a statement to the invaders.

Boudicca and her warriors then destroyed Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans) before succumbing to the forces of the returning Paulinus at an unknown battle site, probably north of London. Boudicca is thought to have poisoned herself rather than be captured.

The defeat ushered in a 350-year period of Roman rule of Britain but our Norfolk queen, having been disinherited and brutalised and seeing her people enslaved and their possessions plundered, has become an icon of national resistance, freedom and liberation.

Where can I see Romans in Norfolk?

Sites of that period include the earthworks of a huge hillfort at Thetford Castle which the Normans later built upon. An open space on a high point, at Gallows Hill, in Thetford, was once the location of a major ceremonial centre that Boudicca would have known.

Another great hillfort at Warham Camp, north of Fakenham, provides stunning views across rolling countryside and was created in the Iron Age but used by the Romans.

Thetford was a major religious centre at an important river crossing whilst at Snettisham there is a Celtic centre on the Icknield Way. The ancient trackway, linking East Anglia to the Chilterns, may have been named after the Iceni.

The Iceni, whose name might have come from Iken, the original name of the River Ouse, where the tribe are said to have come from, had settlements across Norfolk, in north Suffolk and east Cambridgeshire. One of them was at Brettenham on the Peddars Way, east of Thetford, which was built by Romans to quickly transport troops up to The Wash and Brancaster, where they had a fort protecting the estuary from raiders.

Although nothing remains above ground of the Brancaster fort, large grey stone blocks from the fort have been re-used and can be seen in a number of local churches, including St Mary the Virgin at Brancaster.

At Caistor St Edmund, just 3 miles south of Norwich, are the flint walls of a Roman town, known then as Venta Icenorum (literally, the marketplace of the Iceni), and once the civitas capital of this part of Britain for the Romans but also possibly for the Iceni before. 

The site was abandoned in the 8th century and only rediscovered in 1928 during an aerial reconnaissance – the lines of streets and buildings could be seen clearly as parch marks in the barley crop.

Located next to the river Tas, this remains a lovely location for walkers to explore.

This is one of only three major Romano-Briton towns that haven’t been buried underneath later towns and cities.

The Roman town is on the route of the Boudicca Way, between Norwich and Diss.

Venta Icenorum would also have been a port, navigable from the North Sea through a vast saltwater called Gariensis, the Great Estuary. At the time Great Yarmouth didn’t exist, it was created in medieval times by longshore drift. Today, as you can see in the picture above, the seaside resort is on a sand spit that covers the mouth of the estuary that was only kept open in later times by the ingenuity of Dutch engineers.

In Roman times, the area now covered by Halvergate Marshes was a great stretch of water into which the rivers Waveney, Yare and Bure all drained.

In the late 3rd century, the Romans built a fort on the southern side of the estuary to deter marauders. You can visit Burgh Castle Roman Fort today and stand among massive Roman flint walls, almost 5-metres high, overlooking the River Yare and Halvergate Marshes. It is managed by English Heritage.

Burgh Castle, now the largest remaining Roman construction in the country, was referred to as Gariannonum in the Roman document Notitia Dignitatum, and one of the Saxon Shore forts built to protect the east and south coast from raiders.

Stand on the heightened land of Burgh Castle looking north and imagine than when the Romans were here what was in front of you was a huge estuary, more than a mile wide.

Parts of the gateway and defences of another fort can also be seen at Caister-on-Sea. In fact, the name Caister comes from the word ‘ceaster’, Latin for camp or fortified place, derived from the word 'castrum'.

Roman ships were able to sail all the way up to their town at Venta Icenorum.

Roman Camp at Beacon Hill on the Cromer Ridge is the highest point of East Anglia with a sea view but there is no evidence there was ever a Roman Camp there.

Norwich Castle has a Boudicca Gallery where you can learn more about the Romans in Norfolk. The gallery houses pieces of the Snettisham treasure, torcs and coins found at Ken Hill in north west Norfolk, mostly from 1948, as well as telling the story of Boudicca and the Roman occupation.