St Michael’s church, St Albans, retains much Roman material in its walls and piers.
Since this chapter went to press, I have read Mr Montagu Sharpe’s Parish Churches on Romano-British Sites, 1909, in which evidence is adduced to show that many of our parish churches occupy the sites of pagan rural chapels (sacella) and are closely associated with the lines of centuriation as planned by Roman surveyors. The sacellum was a small unroofed place consecrated to a deity (p. 4), containing an altar, and sometimes a shrine (aedicula). The sacellum was also used for non-religious purposes, e.g. as a place of refreshment. Mr Sharpe states that the Roman surveyors divided a district into areas or “blocks” by means of four public ways (viae vicinales). In the canton of the London Civitas a side of such a square measured 1⅛ miles (p. 2). Maps are given, one of which shows that 30 parish churches of the Isle of Wight “had intimate connection with the lines of the Roman Survey” (p. 3). Such churches are especially found near cross-roads.
Mr John Ward’s The Roman Era in Britain, 1911, pp. 111-113, deserves notice in this connection, especially with regard to the conflict between the historical evidence and the “comparative silence of archaeology.”
[Page 14.] Classification of earthworks. A portion of the scheme is appended, in order to explain the groups of earthworks to which reference is made.
A. Promontory fortresses: partly inaccessible, on account of cliffs or water, partly defended by artificial walls or banks.
B. Hill-or Contour-forts: fortresses situated on hill-tops, with artificial defences following the natural line of the hill.
C. Rectangular, or other simple enclosures, including forts and towns of the Romano-British kind.
D. Castle mounts: forts consisting of a mount, with an encircling ditch or fosse.
E. Castle mounts with baileys: fortified mounts wholly or partly artificial, having an attendant court or bailey.
[Page 118.] Churches as fortresses. The church of St Michael, Torrington, Devon, was employed by the Royalists (1646), both as a prison and a powder magazine. Owing to an explosion, probably accidental, the church was blown up, and about 200 prisoners were killed.