We’re advised how that fearsome Roman army of occupation had gone by 420, as they didn’t fancy getting caught up in rush-hour traffic largely of their own making. It had more than doubled by 430 AD ( Approaching Deadlock).

New roads, new towns, new industries, ,booming economic and social development … mission accomplished!

So much better than Norfolk BC (Broadband Coming). Invaders could pack their togas, helmets and dialect phrase-books after farewell cheese-and-mead parties and move on to enlighten a few other musty corners across the globe.

It was missionary work with perks on an industrial scale and set the mood for so many others intent on dragging Norfolk out of the Dark Ages by giving them things already mucking up places from which their would-be saviours had escaped in earnest droves.

As one old Norfolk boy mused many potholes later as he sipped a pint of mild in the snug of The Eradicated Coypew: “Thass bin a’gorn on since time immoral!”.

Majority of people in Norfolk when the Romans called were small farmers leading useful lives either in villages or remote farmsteads. Peasants were apt........

© Norwich Evening News