Roman Towcester

There is a short article on the Roman History of Towcester (called Lactodurum) plus link to a page with comparative maps. The same site also has the shapes of the Town walls of the largest Romano-British walled towns, including Towcester.

There is an academic list of references to Roman Pottery finds, including those in Towcester by the Study Group for Roman Pottery (SGRP) in the SGRP Homepage Journal of Roman Pottery Studies Volume 1, 1986 Edited by Rob Perrin and "Roman Pottery Bibliography" Edited by R. P. Symonds

Extracts from "Marketing of Roman Pottery in Second-Century Northamptonshire and the Milton Keynes area" by Karen E. Griffiths (pages 66 to 76) can be found [here]. The Atlas of Roman Pottery , mentions a big concentration of "soft pink grog-tempered wares" in the Towcester/Milton Keynes area. Roman yellow-green conical glass jugs have been found in Park Street in Towcester [more].

Towcester Histories

John Sunderland's short history of Towcester is not only on this web site but also on bbc.co.uk and in the "Official Guide to Towcester" published on behalf of Towcester Town Council and in the online version of the same. The bbc.co.uk website also contains more information on Towcester. Phil Lord, an American who traced his ancestors to Towcester, has written about the town [more].

A more ancient historical reference to Towcester is in Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of England". Book 4 of Tunna, who was a priest and abbot of a monastery in the city which is still called Tunnacaestir after him. (Towcester) [here].

Brief mention of the history of Towcester can be found [here] relating to the sphere of influence of Saxon Dorchester Cathedral.

There is also a web site with pictures of all the milestones on the Watling street between Milton Keynes and Holyhead. This includes an unusual one in Towcester.

History of Towcester Organisations and Buildings

There is a web site about Towcester's Railway History and its station. .

Caswell Farm, two miles north of Towcester, was used as a Research Laboratory by The Plessey Co Ltd. They moved there during the Second World War in 1940 to avoid the bombing in London. The Laboratory was at the forefront of Silicon Microchip research from the 1950s to the 1970s and many of the "high tech" businesses in Towcester are derived from Caswell. [more].

The Catholic Church of St. Thomas More in Meeting Lane, Towcester was originally (1847) an Independent Chapel [more]

The Parish Church of St Lawrence, Towcester, has a large peal of bells, bought from St. Mary's Church, Todmorden. [more]. There is a description of some of the interior feature of St. Lawrences Church [here].

The History of the Towcester Workhouse, which has now been converted into flats (apartments) is [here]

Guided Walks

History Related Organisations

The Towcester and District Local History Society is a member of the Northamptonshire Association for Local History [NALH]; the British Association for Local History [BALH]; the Association of Small Historic Towns and Villages [ASHTAV]; the Milton Keynes Heritage Association [MKHA]; the Community Landscape and Archaeology Survey Project [CLASP] and the Council for British Archaeology [CBA]South Midlands Group.

Local academic projects include the excavations of Roman Remains at the Whitehall Farm and Roman Villa Project near Nether Heyford, and the Whittlewood Project (Leicester University) which covers the area bounded by Towcester, Brackley, Buckingham and Stony Stratford from about 400 A.D. to the early middle ages.