Simon Elliott

Ragstone to Riches Simon Elliott

Ragstone to Riches tells the story of the huge Roman metalla extractive industries of the south east of the province of Britannia. These provided much of the iron to equip the military there, and ragstone to facilitate the construction of the built environment in the region during the occupation, through to the middle of the 3rd century AD. In the former case this was the Wealden iron industry, which, especially to the north of Hastings, featured sites as large as any industrial enterprise today. Meanwhile, regarding the upper Medway Valley ragstone quarrying industry, the work identifies for the first time the five specific quarries which provided the material to build Roman London. For both, the author also explores the role played by the military in running these enormous metalla enterprises.