In AD 43 Aulus Plautius was sent to Briton following his success in subduing the Gauls.  His remit was to  "now go and do the same to the Britons".  He landed with 4 legions and 20,000 auxiliary troops and forced his way rapidly in land with significant victories over the Britons at battles on the rivers Medway and Thames.  Plautius at this point called in Claudius  who arrived with elephants and heavy artillery to advance across the country with speed.  The second legion marched into the South West.  Within the first three years of his governorship Claudius captured much of the lowland area of Britain - accounting for almost all of the arable land of the province.  His conquests from the river Severn in the south to the mouth of the river Trent on the Humber estuary in the north were defined by a Roman road which ran from Exeter, through Leicestershire on up to Lincoln.  The road was known as the Fosse Way (after the Latin fossae, or raised banks that the road was built).  It was on this Fosse frontier that Easton Grey gained its new found Roman status.  The Roman roads were military machines for the rapid deployment of troops and were constructed by the Roman army.  In the case of the Fosse at Easton Grey, it was built by the men of the Fourteenth Legion (Gemina) with some added enforced local labour.  Mansio's (fortified wayside inn's) were established a day's ride apart approximately every 15 miles.  At such a strategic place as the crossing over the river Avon a military camp or mansio was sited overlooking the river which is today known as Whitewalls.  Shops and services to support those travelling the Fosse sprung up around the mansio and remains of these buildings can be identified today on the West side of the Fosse.  The settlement grew over the three centuries of Roman rule  transforming its role from troops to trade.

The Romano-British Settlement

While the first military installations were likely to have been located close to the Fosse Way and the River Avon, the subsequent Roman-British settlement developed into the fields around.  Fields known as Park Hill, Linehams, Lobley, Fosse Knowl, Foxley Park and also Whitewalls Wood.  A good portion of this is scheduled as an Ancient Monument.  Until recently little was known about the settlement; it had never been excavated with any degree of rigour and what was known was gained from the work of amateur antiquarians such as Collinson (1791) Colt Hoare (1821) and Passmore (1931). In recent years aerial photography and further fieldwork have added considerably to our understanding of the site.  In simple terms the settlement of Easton Grey was a bustling town with stone buildings set out in a series of streets on either side of the Fosse Way.  To the north of the Avon there were two communities, one on the east and one to the west of the Fosse.  The western town consisted of some 12 rectangular hollows about 8 m by 4m with a number of terraced platforms measuring up to 30m.  The areas to the east of the Fosse consist of further buildings and earthworks suggesting some form of walls or boundaries.  The town to the south of the river is built on upland areas and is composed of a series of streets arranged on a grid form - it seemed the town expanded into this more open area during the relative peace of the second century A.D.

In August 2003 the most detailed survey and excavation of the site so far was carried out for English Heritage by a team under the direction of Senior Archaeologist, Tony Wilmott.

From their evidence they summarised the site seems to have continued up to the end of the 4th century and potentially into the 5th century.  In other words the Roman-British community ranged back to the first century A.D., to just a few years after the probable date of the first military presence on the site until the Legions had left the UK in the 4th century.

One little known fact is that may have played a significant role in the developing importance of the settlement is the existence of a second Roman road meeting at Easton Grey.  The second road branches off north west from the Fosse about one mile from the village.  The road went all the way to the Forest of Dean where iron was mined and this provided a safe route to the Fosse Way.  So during the second and third centuries A.D. Easton Grey was not only on the major Roman highway through Corinium (Cirencester today) but was also at the crossroads of an important raw materials highway.  

Easton Grey was a town large enough to need some form of governance, whether military or social. The community was wealthy.  To the west of the village there remains a large structure which was either a villa or some form of local government residence.  The monument is known as Whitewalls where the earthworks are still clearly visible.

From Easton Grey - A Brief Village History