What did the Romans do for Whittle-le-Woods?
“What have the Romans done for us?” Nearly everyone of a certain age is familiar with the immortal question posed in Monty Python’s Life of Brian and a worryingly large number can quote verbatim the long list of Roman achievements given in reply. But if the influence of Rome was readily apparent in the cities of 1 st century Judea, what of one of the furthest corners of the Roman empire, the North-West of England? In this article, we will look at Roman Britain, focusing on the evidence for the presence of the Romans in Lancashire. And yes, we will consider the influence of Rome on Whittle-le-Woods and the surrounding area. Britain before the Romans The period from around 800 BC until the coming of the Romans in the 1 st century AD is known as the Iron Age. During this time, the population of Britain, along with much of the rest of Western Europe, was divided into a large number of tribes. The British tribes were part of an extensive but loose group of peoples known as th