V Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum)

What3words – accented.history.flush

Visited June 2009

Status – One of Britain’s Best

Date - AD55

Capacity - 7,250

Apart from Caerleon and probably the City of London and Chester, full-on stone monumental amphitheatres were rare in the misty far outpost of Britannia, That’s not to say they aren’t worth seeking out, and Silchester is a bit of a gem.

The town was gradually abandoned after the end of the Roman era, so most of the city walls still stand and nothing was built on top of it. It yielded some fantastic artefacts when dug over (check out the museum in nearby Reading and read ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’ by Rosemary Sutcliff). You can sometimes find cows grazing in parts of it, alongside labouring archaeologists.

Just outside the city walls and partly hidden within a copse is the amphitheatre. Built of earth banks which mostly survive, it would have had wooden seating and outer wall reinforcement (which did not). The sandy ‘playing’ surface is well-defined and sits about 2m below the surrounding ground level having been excavated to throw up the surrounding banking. It is estimated to have been a 5½ to 7½  thousand seater.

Several of the original roads which converged on Silchester survive at footpaths or country lanes and particularly the one from the east provides a straight green lane and an opportunity to approach by bicycle on a fine day.