Hi Alan,
your key, and most significant, phrase in determining the likely geographic range of the campaign is, in my opinion:
"I see the battle somewhere around the western side of Iceni territory possibly not far from St Albans or between St Albans and the Northern Frontier forts (Lincoln?)"
It seems to me that with this fundamental statement you may be negating the western candidate sites (Mancetter, Ogbourne, Bicester) and other more distant sites (Virginia Water and all sites South of the Thames). I happen to align with this interpretation of your conclusion and see Watling Street as probably the westernmost likely extent of the campaign, others obviously won't. If in your write up you can expand on your conclusion I think the debate would benefit.
All - I went to the Battlefields Trust study day.
Two surprises:
1, Martyn Tagg was unable to attend/present, therefore I am no closer to understanding his Bicester candidacy/evidence base.
2, Martyn was substituted by Richard Scholefield who nominated a new site, the valley bottom at Little Brickhill, with the British approaching the Roman lines from the high ground to the South.
It's worth noting that Prof. Will Bowden, the Iceni specialist from Nottingham Uni, defined Iceni territory as being co-terminus with the combined county boundaries of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. This seemed a further west than I was anticipating, putting the Iceni homeland as far west as the outskirts of Thrapston on the Nene..
your key, and most significant, phrase in determining the likely geographic range of the campaign is, in my opinion:
"I see the battle somewhere around the western side of Iceni territory possibly not far from St Albans or between St Albans and the Northern Frontier forts (Lincoln?)"
It seems to me that with this fundamental statement you may be negating the western candidate sites (Mancetter, Ogbourne, Bicester) and other more distant sites (Virginia Water and all sites South of the Thames). I happen to align with this interpretation of your conclusion and see Watling Street as probably the westernmost likely extent of the campaign, others obviously won't. If in your write up you can expand on your conclusion I think the debate would benefit.
All - I went to the Battlefields Trust study day.
Two surprises:
1, Martyn Tagg was unable to attend/present, therefore I am no closer to understanding his Bicester candidacy/evidence base.
2, Martyn was substituted by Richard Scholefield who nominated a new site, the valley bottom at Little Brickhill, with the British approaching the Roman lines from the high ground to the South.
It's worth noting that Prof. Will Bowden, the Iceni specialist from Nottingham Uni, defined Iceni territory as being co-terminus with the combined county boundaries of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. This seemed a further west than I was anticipating, putting the Iceni homeland as far west as the outskirts of Thrapston on the Nene..
