Calleva Atrebatum the Lost City of Rome lies beneath the fields and meadows around Silchester. The town occupied an octagonal shaped area at the northern edge of the parish and there are still signs of five or six Roman roads radiating out from the site in Berkshire and northern Hampshire. The strategic importance of Calleva has been revealed in excavations that were carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries, when the site was excavated and mapped then reburied. The old town is now the site of a farm and the present church at the eastern end of the walled area. When the Domesday Survey was being carried out there were two manors in the Parish but not long after they were made into one, probably in the possession of the Bluet family. In th 13th century the overlordship passed to the Earls of Pembroke and then were divided between the Earls of Pembroke and the Earls of Norfolk, the two parts being called Nether Court and Over Court. The manor including the Dunche family, the Viscounts Blessington and Mountjoy, and the Earl of Longford. The property was then sold to Arthur Wellesley in 1828. He was the first Duke of Wellington. On the border between Hampshire and Berkshire, and about a mile from Silchester is the Imp Stone, this was said to have been hurled there from Silchester by the giant called Onion.

Coins were found among the ruins of the Roman town and these were thought to have been a part of his treasure and hence were known as 'Onions pennies' during mediaeval times.

Four gateways can still be seen just outside of the walls and the great amphitheatre is also visible. Inside this amphitheatre was a colonnaded forum, a hall of justice, a temple to the gods and a small Christian church.

Calleva Atrebatum, Roman Silchester was built upon the site of the native Atrebatic settlement of Calleva, The Atrebates seemed to have been pro-Roman. Calleva became and important Roman town and is an important archaeological site with excatavions by Professor Mike Fulford of Reading University.

Silchester was completely abandoned at the end of the Roman occupation which is unlike many other Roman towns which continued in use after the Roman troops left early in the 5th century AD, a good example of this is Winchester. Silchester has never been built on and the layout survives intact.

Two other Roman town in England, Caistor in Norfolk and Wroxeter in Shropshire have to a similar extent continued to survive. Today the inside of Silchester is buried under pasture and  apart from the town walls and the amphitheatre there is nothing else visible, the entire circuit of the town wall surives and is the best examples of its kind.

IMAGES OF SILCHESTER

The stones in the car park that  relate the history of the Roman City		Part of the Roman Wall at St Marys Chuch
A more detailed view of the Roman Wall		The Roman Amphitheatre
The East Recess in the amphitheatre		Roman drainage system
Silchester House		The ornamental clock at the entrance to Silchester House. The figures hit the bells with hammers
The Calleva Arms		The War Memorial
The Church of St Mary

There is something in the church of this tiny village that has come from the city below and is both rare and strange. It is in fact a chair that is made from a piece of wood that was possibly still a tree when Christ walked in Galilee, and it was used by the builders of the town to line a water culvert and a chair has been made from it.

HISTORY OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN