Roman pots are brought home to Tring and put on display in town’s museum

Tring Local History Museum has got three new displays, including Roman pots that were recovered from Cow Roast.

Four restored Roman pots, two brooches displaying fine enamel work and two Roman coins have been put on show at Tring Local History Museum.

One of the coins displays the fable of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf, the other shows a seated Britannia with a shield and spear.

Excavations started at Cow Roast in 1972 and were carried out by the Berkhamsted and District Archaeological Society.

Work went on for four years in an orchard near the Cow Roast Inn, then for three years at the marina and then later on land adjacent to the inn.

The site, near Tring, is that of a Romano-British settlement, which grew up alongside Akeman Street - a Roman road running from St Albans via Tring to Cirencester, that now follows part of the A41.

The site is now recognised as an Ancient Monument under the protection of English Heritage and is designated as a Roman town.

Tring museum curator Howard Collings said: “As far as we can establish this site must have been a staging post between London and Bicester - it is about a day’s march from London and it’s another day’s march to Bicester.

“I think they hope to do some more excavations in the future to establish how big the site was, because it does seem to be one of those sites that was quite important in Roman times.”

Shortly after their discovery the Roman pots were reconstructed and had been left in storage ever since.

The material used to reconstruct them had become brittle over time, which was causing the pots to deteriorate, so restoration work was carried out by the Museum of London and the Dacorum Heritage Trust was successful in securing funding to purchase custom made mounts from Dauphin in France.

Before coming to the Tring museum, the pots had been put on show to the public in Hemel Hempstead’s Civic Centre.

Another new display at the Tring museum, in Market Place, contains personal and domestic items that were used between 1970 and 1980.

The third new display looks forward Tring’s Charter 700 celebrations this summer and gives ideas for medieval costumes for those who want to participate in the event.