Great Chesterford Temple

Temple Or Shrine

This square temple lies on a gentle hill(-slope) about a mile east of the town. The portico measures about 46 feet square, the cella about 22 feet square with a mosaic floor which was probably covered. The inner walls were about 2 feet thick, the outer walls about 2½ feet thick. The temple faced east. The temple was probably built during the 2nd century, and was deliberately destroyed sometime during the 4th, its mosaics being smashed. (Type I, or II)

A relaxation of the Roman military grip and an increase in local prosperity is probably reflected in the building, almost certainly with Roman help, of the temple, in typical Romano-Celtic style, on the hillside near where the Belgae had buried their dead. Roman assistance in the building of what must have been quite an expensive shrine for the local deity may well have been part of the deliberate policy of conciliation and development which, Tacitus tells us, was introduced some twenty years after the Boudiccan rebellion had been crushed .

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