Jewry Wall with St Nicholas Church Behind

If you're on Facebook, like me, you may well be bombarded with news of nearby events. Which is how I learned of the exploration of Roman Leicester. This appealed to me so I drove into town late this morning.

This photo shows the Jewry Wall, which used to mark the boundary of the Roman baths. Leicester lay on the Fosse Way and for some reason, the Romans chose to stop and form a settlement. It's possible that the site controlled a ford across the River Soar. As far as the Friends of Jewry Wall could tell us, Leicester, or Ratae Corieltauvorum, was never primarily a military town although it's probable there was a fort or small garrison here.

The wall is thought to be the second largest piece of Roman masonry still standing in UK.

City Fathers never particularly esteemed the Roman remains of the city and they've been progressively built over. Now they've realised they've got to provide more interest to visitors than just Richard III. But you can still walk the boundaries of the city walls as they were in Roman times and even into the Medieval period.

Three members of the Friends of Jewry Wall who were holding the heritage day had entered into the spirit of the event and so we had a Roman matron, a Roman citizen and a legionnaire in attendance. Tea and cake were served in St Nicholas Church, much of which has been built from stone and brickwork from the Roman wall.

As I was finishing up, I could hear drummers playing funky music. Turned out that they were the Sambando Drummers of Leicester who play Brazilian based street rhythms. See extra.