Roman c43 – c410 CE
Soon after 43CE, when the Romans started to take over the country, an old trackway was paved and improved to create Watling Street. This ran from Dover, through Fenny Stratford, the Bletchley area and then north to Bradwell before concluding in Wroxeter, just outside modern Shrewsbury. A fort was constructed at Little Brickhill and a fort and vicus were the forerunners of a town, Magiovinium (now Fenny Stratford) which developed on Watling Street. There were many trackways and family farmsteads in the area connecting Bradwell to villas and farming settlements in Stantonbury, Wimbush, Shenley Brook End, and Bletchley. The Bradwell area could well have been a source of materials for the villa at Bancroft (started in about 100CE and abandoned in the fifth or sixth centuries) where cattle, oxen, sheep, goats, pigs, horses and domestic fowl were kept and fruits, vegetables, wheat, barley and flax were grown. There was an occupation site at Wood Corner(called because of the proximity of Linford Wood. This was at the parish boundary, accessed via the road through the village (Primrose Lane, formerly Bury Lane) which continued eastwards as ‘Common Lane’, on the route to the higher ground of Bradwell Common and then onto Secklow. There was a Roman corn-drying oven 200m north-east of Wood Corner, evidence of Roman smithing activities was uncovered during the construction of Bradwell Middle School and there was a Romano-British site at what is now the Discovery Centre.