Located on Watling Street in the village of Wall is the remains of the small Roman town Letocetum. Watling Street was the principle road from London to the West Midlands. Around AD 50, the Roman Fourteenth Legion (Legio XIV Gemina) established a fortress on the hill just beyond the present church.
The centre of a large rural population, Letocetum had public baths surrounded by a portico and a mansio (Roman Inn). The cobbled street surface is still exposed in places.
The mansio accommodated travelling officers, imperial messengers and visitors and may have housed the town’s administration. The mansio would have had an open central courtyard (atrium) with a formal garden and gallery to the first floor.
By the 4th century, Letocetum declined rapidly after the settlement moved to Lichfield.The site is owned by The National Trust and managed and maintained by English Heritage.
