Rob wrote:
> No we know that sites such as Silchester and Wroxeter were not occupied by
> the Germanic people. I was trying to suggest that maybe sites that were
> fertile and excellent for arable farming were not colonised by the
Germanics
> until the mid 7th early 8th Centuries

The land around Silchester is not particularly fertile and there are other
factors surrounding the location of Silchester and its agricultural economy,
which was predomiantly pastoral, that make it untypical of Roman towns. The
whole East Berks/North Hants area is settled very slowly because the land is
of such poor quality and at a later date most of it was subsumed into
Windsor Forest. In this case AS settlement was late because there were
better places to go.

Catherine Petts

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