Key Stage 2 history · British history

KS2 Romans in Britain: roads, towns and Romanisation

Part of the Key Stage 2 study of the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain is “Romanisation”: the way Roman technology, culture and beliefs spread through Britain after AD 43. Children look at roads, towns, bath houses, Latin and religion, and ask a real historian’s question: how much did life actually change, and for whom?

Romanisation of Britain, explained

“Romanisation” is the word historians use for the spread of Roman ways of life in the lands the Empire ruled. In Britain, Roman rule began with the invasion of AD 43 and lasted until about AD 410. The national curriculum requires schools to teach the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain. The curriculum suggests studying a site such as Caerwent in south Wales, a Roman town whose stone walls still stand, but schools choose their own examples, and some pick a Roman site nearer home.

Children usually start with technology. The army built long, straight, well-drained roads so soldiers and goods could move quickly. Towns were laid out in grids, with a forum (a market and meeting place), temples and public baths. Bath houses were heated by a hypocaust, a system that sent hot air under the floor and up inside the walls. Many towns had water supplied by pipes or channels, and buildings used concrete, brick and tile. Wealthy Britons built villas with mosaic floors.

Culture changed too. Latin became the language of government, of the army and of many inscriptions. Coins carried the emperor’s face and were used across the whole Empire. People adopted Roman food, pottery and clothing, and some local leaders took part in town government. Religion mixed old and new: the Romans worshipped many gods and often joined them with local ones, as at Bath, where the goddess Sulis was linked with the Roman goddess Minerva. Christianity was tolerated in the Empire from AD 313, and wall paintings and mosaics found in some villas show that Christians lived in Britain by the 300s.

The most important idea is that change was uneven. The south and east, with their towns, villas and roads, changed most. In the countryside and in the north and west, many people carried on much as before, living in roundhouses and farming in familiar ways, though they might still use Roman coins and pots. Children also learn that this picture is built from evidence: ruins, objects, written inscriptions and Roman authors. Each kind of evidence has strengths and gaps, and the people who left the best evidence were often the richest.

Words your child will hear

Romanisation: The spread of Roman ways of life, such as buildings, language and beliefs, into lands the Romans ruled.
Province: A region ruled by Rome from far away. Britain was a province.
Forum: The open space in the middle of a Roman town used for markets, trade and meetings.
Hypocaust: A Roman underfloor heating system, with hot air passing through gaps under the floor.
Villa: A large country house, often with a farm, belonging to a wealthy family.
Inscription: Words carved into stone or metal, such as on a gravestone or a temple altar.
Legacy: Something handed down from the past that still affects us today, such as a road or a word.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught about the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
Pupils should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
Pupils should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A worked enquiry

Using the evidence, how far did the Romans change life in Britain?

Choose evidence that covers different parts of life. Take three pieces: a bath house with a hypocaust in a town, a pot of local style found in the same layer, and a gravestone with a Latin inscription for a soldier from another part of the Empire.
Say what each piece shows. The hypocaust shows new technology and a new habit of bathing together. The pot shows that local traditions carried on. The gravestone shows that people moved across the Empire to live in Britain.
Group the changes: technology (heating, roads, concrete), culture (Latin, coins, food) and beliefs (Roman gods, mixed gods, early Christianity). Grouping helps children organise their answer instead of listing facts.
Say who the evidence is about. A bath house suggests a wealthy town. It tells us less about a farmer in the hills. A good answer admits what the evidence cannot show.
Reach a judgement with “but” or “however”. Use words such as “mostly”, “in towns” and “for some people” so that the claim matches the evidence.

The Romans changed life in Britain a great deal in the towns and in the south and east, through new buildings, heating, roads, Latin, coins and new gods. However, the evidence of local pottery and the countryside suggests that many people kept their own ways, so change was uneven and depended on where and how wealthy people were.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking everyone in Britain suddenly became Roman

Textbook pictures show towns, villas and soldiers, which makes Roman Britain look uniform.

What helps: Ask “Who might not have changed much?” and look for farmers, northern areas and people who left few written records.

Believing the Romans brought everything useful, and that Britain had nothing before them

The Roman period is often taught as the beginning of civilisation. Iron Age Britain already had farming, skilled metalwork, trade and tribal leaders.

What helps: Compare an Iron Age hill fort or roundhouse with a Roman town. Ask what changed and what continued, rather than which was better.

Confusing Romanisation with the invasion itself

Both come under “Romans in Britain”, so children merge conquest and change into one story.

What helps: Keep them apart on a timeline: invasion and conquest from AD 43, then the long process of change over the next centuries.

Assuming the Romans were Christians all along, or forced Christianity on everyone

Children hear that the Roman Empire later became Christian and assume it was always so.

What helps: Explain that Romans first worshipped many gods, that Christianity was tolerated in the Empire from AD 313, and that its spread in Britain was gradual and patchy.

How to help at home

Roman clues on a walk. Many English towns have a Roman road, wall or museum nearby. Look at a map for straight roads or place names ending in “chester”, “caster” or “cester”, which come, through Old English, from a Latin word for a fort or army camp.
Latin in daily life. Look at a clock face with Roman numerals, or the tiny letters around the edge of a British coin, which are an abbreviated Latin title for the monarch. Children also enjoy learning that everyday words such as “street” and “wall” come from Latin.
Make a simple model. Use cardboard or building blocks to make a grid of streets with a forum in the middle. Talk about why Roman towns were planned this way and why Iron Age settlements were not.
Two-column change chart. Draw two columns, “changed” and “stayed the same”, and fill them in from what your child remembers. It is quick, and it practises the thinking about change and continuity that schools look for.

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Medieval Britain 1066 to 1509
Key Stage 3: Tudors and Stuarts: Britain 1509 to 1745
Key Stage 3: Britain 1745 to 1901: industry and empire
Key Stage 3: Britain and the world, 1901 to today
Key Stage 3: The Holocaust