Africa: Cumbrian Church Is Site of Britain's First African Settlement

Researchers from the BBC's history unit have identified a north Cumbrian church - in the extreme north west of England - as being on the site of the first ever recorded settlement of African people in Britain.

St Michael's Church in Burgh-by-Sands, near Carlisle, was built on the site of the third century roman fort of Aballava. The BBC team connected this with the 1934 discovery of a stone in the nearby village of Beaumont, with an inscription recording North African troops as part of the garrison at Aballava.

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