Oldest town in Britain

The Oldest town in Britain is a title claimed by a number of settlements in Great Britain.

Colchester

Colchester claims to be Britain's oldest recorded town. Its claim is based on a reference by Pliny the Elder, the Roman writer, in his Natural History (Historia Naturalis) in AD 77. He described Anglesey as "about 200 miles from Camulodunum, a town in Britain", where Camulodunum was the Roman name for Colchester. It is claimed that this is the first known reference to any named settlement in Britain.

However, Camulodunum clearly existed for a substantial period before AD 77. From around AD 10, Cunobelinus (the Cymbeline of Shakespeare's play), ruled much of south-east Britain from Camulodunon (the "fortress of the war god, Camulos") until his death in AD 40. Following the invasion by Claudius in AD 43, Camulodunum became the first garrison and capital of the new Roman province of Britannia. In AD 50, Britain's first city, Colonia Claudia Victricensis, was founded there, but the city was razed and its citizens massacred in Boudica's rebellion in AD 60. The Roman provincial capital subsequently moved to Londonium (London) where it remained until the end of Roman colonization and influence.

Abingdon

Abingdon in the English county of Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire) claims to be the oldest town in Britain in continuous settlement. In 1991 evidence of a late-Iron Age enclosure of 33 hectares known as an 'oppidum' was discovered underneath the town centre. Unlike other major earthworks discovered from this period, it continued to be used as a town throughout the Roman occupation of Britain and subsequently became the Saxon settlement of Sevekesham or Seovechesham at a time when most other Roman cities were being abandoned. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Ipswich

Ipswich, the county town of the English county of Suffolk, also claims it is England's oldest continuously settled town, with a history of continued occupation since the Anglo Saxons.^[4][5]

Bedford

Bedford in Bedfordshire has a charter dating from 1166, granted by Henry II.^{[citation needed]} This could not possibly be Britain's oldest town, however, because Roman Britain had many settlements in the 1st century.

Thatcham

Thatcham in Berkshire is sometimes claimed as the oldest town in Britain, since its occupation can be traced back a mesolithic hunting camp, which was discovered there beside a Postglacial period lake. Subsequently it received medieval charters. However, Thatcham's long-term status as an inhabited town between those periods is questionable. ^[6]

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