We don't know exactly what was going on here in Stoke Ash two thousand years ago.

We know that the Romans had conquered Gaul and that Caesar had begun to form trade alliances, particularly with the Trinovantes in Essex; we know of a birth in Bethlehem which in later years was used to calculate our calendar - and we know that the Romans invaded Britain in AD43.

Roman Stoke Ash

In AD lOO, some nineteen hundred years ago, Stoke Ash had a small but established place within the Roman Empire. The first thirty years of Roman occupation of East Anglia were marked by unrest and rebellion, such as. the famous revolt of Boudicca in AD60-6l resulting in the near destruction of the Roman capital at Colchester. A network of roads was quickly established to allow the movement of the Roman army, and small settlements sprang up along their route to meet their needs. Stoke Ash, it seems, was chosen as the site of one such military staging post, located along the busy Roman road which linked Colchester with the heartland of the rebellion in Norfolk. This road, the course of which is largely preserved in the A140, in Roman times would have seen the passage of Roman soldiers and traders alike, and provided the stimulus for the growth of a small community at Stoke Ash.

The evidence for settlement and Roman soldiers and travellers at Stoke Ash is few and far between, but still convincing. Chance finds over the last century have turned up several military items - a bronze brooch with military scene, and a vital part of the Roman soldier's weaponry, an iron lance head. Evidence for overseas imports are recorded at Stoke Ash, including pieces of fine pottery vessels for dining brought from southern Gaul (modern-day France) and vessels for transporting Roman wine from the Mediterranean. Obviously the soldiers still enjoyed the trappings of Roman life in the otherwise inhospitable and 'barbaric' province of Britain!

The military presence at Stoke Ash was brief - once law and order was firmly established in the region there was little need to maintain a garrison. Little is known of what followed, but it is believed that the increasing importance of the road as a route for trade and communication guaranteed the survival of a small settlement at Stoke Ash. The significance or this route is confirmed by a rare Roman document, the Antonine Itinerary, which has survived from the third century AD. Believed to be an aid to travelling Roman officials, it documents a series of journeys around the Roman Empire, including the route through Suffolk from Stratford St. Mary to Scole, via, of course, Stoke Ash. Moreover, this route passes through a place named Villa Faustini (meaning estate of the Faustini family), which is recorded as being 32 miles from Colchester and 161/2 from Caister St.Edmund. Could Stoke Ash be a contender for this name? Recent excavations at Scole have confirmed the presence of a small Roman town here, a site which could also be a strong contender for the historically documented place name.

Despite a long history of awareness about and interest in Roman Stoke Ash, little is known for certain. The earliest known investigation dates to the late nineteenth century, when a local collector carried out excavations in the village. His discoveries at Stoke Ash and other Roman sites in Suffolk, formed the subject of a series of stunning water colour maps of the county, which are housed by the Ipswich Museum. At Stoke Ash he notes 'innumerable remains found', the nature of which are, to the best of my knowledge, unknown. Recently archaeologists have found pottery, brooches, coins and other items on a site at Stoke Ash, beside a tributary of the River Dove and close to the A140 road, itself Roman in origin. Digs continue on a weekly basis at this site. Information gleaned from the site and from the adjacent Thornham Estate is adding to the understanding of the Roman occupation of Britain.

After the Romans withdrew from Britain, the 5th century saw the "coming of the Saxons" to this part of the country. The sixth and seventh centuries saw the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity and no doubt people in Stoke Ash heard about the appointment of Felix as Bishop of Dunwich in 631. Certainly there was a church in Stoke Ash at the time of the turn of the last millennium, but people must have lived in 'fear of the Viking attacks along the coast.

Then of course came the events of 1066 leading to the coronation of William and followed by the building of many Norman castles and the dispossession of the landowning English nobility. The people of Stoke Ash would surely have been worried by the building of a castle at Eye by William Malet.

The Domesday Book

The Domesday information about Stoke Ash gives the name by which the village was known in 1086 together with the tenants in chief and main under-tenants and other general information as follows:

S(t)oches/Stota(s): King's land, kept by Godric;

Robert Malet's mother; Abbot of St.Edmunds. 20 goats (these were 'dues').

Historians have a clear picture of Suffolk from Domesday information. The county was mostly villages and freemen rather than manors and feudal workers. The north-west of the county was largely uninhabited and the eastern shore was crumbling then as it is now. The principal towns included Dunwich as well as Ipswich and Bury, but had no more than 3000 inhabitants.

Livestock records show 4343 goats in Suffolk, but only two donkeys! The church is recorded as having 15 acres of land, 1/4 plough.