Battling Boudica 'started the Brexit movement' on Atherstone's doorstep 2,000 years ago

A warrior queen who put Mancetter on the map of the ancient world has been credited with being the first Brexiteer.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson may have led Britain out of the EU at the end of last month after a three-year tussle with Parliament but 2,000 years ago Iceni tribal chief Boudica tried in vain to evict a Roman army of occupation – and send it packing back to Europe.

More than 300 people attending the opening of the new Roman Mancetter & Boudica Heritage Centre in the village church of St Peter's on Saturday were given the history lesson with a political twist by Atherstone Civic Society's Stuart Jones.

Mr Jones, project deputy chairman to a scheme years in the planning to erect a permanent exhibition highlighting the front-line strategic importance of Mancetter during the early years after Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain, said Boudica was the first person to act in a way we now attribute to the Brexit movement.

Her methods were bloody in an unashamed bid to "sever links" with the wider European community of the day in the first century AD.

Mr Jones added: "She was the first person to try and stabilise Britain – for the British.

"Boudica basically told the Romans to 'get off our land' and almost succeeded."

The leader of the East Anglian-based tribe mounted a fierce resistance to Roman ruthless efficiency aimed at conquering the whole of Britain.

Boudica, also known as Boadicea, was determined to pay back the Romans for their brutal treatment of ancient Britons in general and her own family – the raping of her daughters – in particular.

She marched on the hated Roman colony at Colchester and burnt it to the ground, massacring its inhabitants before moving on and sacking London – which was already a city with an estimated population of 10,000.

St Albans was next in her master plan and vanquished before governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus despatched the Roman 14th Legion to deal with the uprisings.

And that's where Mancetter came in sometime during 60 AD – as Atherstone Civic Society secretary Margaret Hughes has written a book which makes the most definitive claim yet for the village being the site of Boudica's last great battle and arguably the biggest ever on British soil.

Academics on Boudica's trail back up the theory, suggesting the claim for Manduessesdum (Mancetter's Roman name) had gained "well-founded support" and "holds up strongly" against several other sites.

Boudica amassed 230,000 ill-protected warriors against the 10,000 crack soldiers of the 14th legion. Roman discipline and weaponry won the day and as a result Britain continued as a province of the empire, explained Mr Jones.

The warrior queen died shortly after the battle – not from inflicted wounds but possibly after committing suicide.

Boudica may have a statue in her honour facing Big Ben in London but now she stands proudly as the focal point for the new heritage centre located in one of the aisles of Mancetter's village church.

Hartshill author Mrs Hughes, who has painstakingly researched over decades the link between Mancetter and Boudica's last battle, cut the ribbon at the official opening of the centre and its permanent exhibition at the weekend. She went on to sign first edition copies of her tome 'Boudica At Mancetter'.

In addition to the civic guests from Atherstone and North Warwickshire, popular retired BBC Midlands Today newsreader Kay Alexander eagerly purchased a copy and said she was looking forward to reading it.

Mr Jones said he was delighted announcing the "dream team" of historians and experts responsible for pulling the project together – the centre relying heavily on support from Atherstone Civic Society, the church's parish council, The Friends of Atherstone Heritage and Warwickshire County Council.

Some months down the line North Warwickshire Borough Council agreed to sponsor the project with a grant and then main funding arrived from EU body Liaison entre actions de developpement de l'economie (LEADER) – an organisation which supports the rural environment.

"It is ironic, we got funding for the project from the EU's LEADER – just before we deserted Europe," he added.

So, where does it all go from here?

"It's not just an exhibition," added.

The centre shows visitors the history of Mancetter through the ages – firstly as Manduessesdum in Roman times and the building of a wooden fort in 48 AD to protect workers creating the Watling Street road. In 51 AD the construction was dismantled.

It may have stayed for only three years, and despite the 'Brits-for-Britain' campaign by Boudica some 20 centuries ago, Mr Jones told the launch audience not to forget the impact of an enormous empire that extended from Britannia across most of central and southern Europe to North Africa and modern day Iran.

He said: "We just don't realise today the influence of Roman civilisation."

The civic society business secretary reeled off its footprint on the Western World including the alphabet and language, fresh water and sanitation, medicine, education, law and public order, modern warfare, central heating "as well as the stars in the sky named after Roman gods".

Famous for their roads, even the world's railway tracks are based on the width between the wheels of a Roman chariot, he added.

In Roman times, the area boasted 70 kilns stretching from Mancetter to Hartshill Hayes – all producing pottery for the whole of the Roman empire.

And 2,000 years on people are still finding fragments in their back gardens.

The heritage centre has been established to create interest to visitors.

In the first 12 months it will be open to local groups and schools with packages which include a visit, talk and walk, teas and even a two-course meal.

The exhibition can be viewed every Saturday from 10.30am-2.30pm with Wednesday being earmarked as a potential second front for additional opening.

Above all, it will be help to retell that famous conflagration between Boudica's warriors and the Roman legionnaires.

How ironic that the most famous conflict before Hastings – and involving the largest number ever on British soil – should not have been handed a name down the annals of history.

"So let's call it the Battle of Watling Street," suggested Mr Jones.

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