History Feature: Was Leyton once the site of a Roman military base?

Camulodunum – now Colchester – was the first place the Romans settled following their invasion of Britain in 43AD.

It soon gained enormous importance, with the site transformed into arguably the country's first proper city.

But just over a decade later a new settlement called Londinium was formed a few dozen miles away on the banks of the River Thames – and the landscape of Britain was changed forever.

Londinium soon eclipsed Camulodunum in importance, but the gradual shift in the Roman Empire's seat of power in Britain lead to a steady and crucial flow of traffic between the two cities.

This lead to the establishment of Durolitum, which English Heritage says literally translates as the “fort at the fort”.

Our modern-day knowledge of this place is sketchy, but it is believed to have been both a settlement  where weary travellers could rest and change their horses, while also serving as a look-out post and  strategic military base to protect the lifeline region from the threat of attack or invasion.

The site is briefly mentioned in the second century Roman document the Antonine Itinerary, although its exact location between Londinium and Camulodunum is unknown today.

The mystery has lead to a fierce debate.

William Camden was one of the first to make a suggestion, proposing in his epic work Britannia, which was published in 1586, that Leyton was where Durolitum once stood.

Camden drew his conclusions based on the rich archaeological finds in the area, while also proposing that Durolitum translated as "the water of Ley" - which he said may have been a reference to the nearby River Lea.

And further "evidence" could be found nearby. He wrote: "One ward in Leyton-parish is still call’d Leyton-stone - which answers the old Roman way of expressing miles by stones".

His theory gained traction, to the extent that by the 1880s Victorian writer Edward Walford said in his book 'Greater London' that many historians “generally accepted” that Leyton was indeed the site of Durolitum.

He wrote: “The discovery of coins, bricks and pottery of Roman work here would seem to show that it was a place of some importance during the period of the Roman occupation”.

However the theory is not without its flaws, largely due to the fact that Roman artefacts have also been found all over the region, including Wanstead Park and Theydon Garnon.

Thomas Wright argued in his 1836 book 'The History and Topography of Essex' that Romford was the likely location because the Antonine Itinerary appears to suggest the settlement was about 15 miles outside of Londinium, making Leyton was too close.

But that idea is also debatable due to the unreliability of Roman measurements and, arguably, its records.

Other suggestions have included Cheshunt and Waltham Cross, both in Hertfordshire.

Meanwhile English Heritage believes extensive Roman finds at Little London in Chigwell could well have been  Durolitum.

However Chigwell, like all the other places mooted, lacks any archaeological evidence of a fort.

It seems that until that is found somewhere deep in the earth north and east of London, the mystery of  Durolitum will live on.