The Britons that inhabited our area before the Roman invasion were farmers, and cultivated wheat and cattle. They lived in highly organised societies which traded with people from around the civilised world. The Cornovii controlled no routes to the south, through Dobunni territory, and their contact with the sea was at Meols on the north Wirral coast, near modern Liverpool. Archaeologists have found coins here from both Brittany and Carthage. It is thought that the marority of the tribe's wealth was in cattle and land, as opposed to metalworking skills, and so external trade was not as important as elsewhere. 

This rather crude sketch map gives an idea of the size and nature of the territory. It was good farm land, and well watered. There were natural brine springs at Nantwich, Middlewich, and Northwich, a valuable commodity used for preserving both food and leather, which the Cornovii traded around the country. The majority of the surviving hill forts are in the area of South Shropshire, possibly reflecting a threat from the more warlike hill tribes to the west, or simply a different way of building settlements here.

The Romans came in AD 43, and there was not much resistance. The chance of trade with the new masters must have seemed very attractive, and apart from storming and torching the hill fort on the Wrekin, probably as a pincer movement from Watling Street to the north, and Leighton to the south, the Romans did not need to use force. The local Britons may well have been quick to supply beer, cattle and wheat to the legions, and some may well have found it advantageous to even join up. There may have been liasons between the soldiers, (many of whom were from Germany), and local women, with offspring as a result.