Crick, Monmouthshire an important junction on the Roman road sometimes known as the "Via Julia" which ran from Bath ("Aquae Sulis") across the Severn estuary to Sudbrook and on to Caerwent ("Venta Silurum") and Caerleon ("Isca Augusta"), now in Wales. At Crick the route met the roads to Gloucester ("Glevum") and Monmouth ("Blestium"). There is also evidence of an early Norman motte and bailey castle at Ballan Moor near Crick, probably built by the Ballon family in the late 11th or early 12th century. In July 1645, during the English Civil War, a mediaeval hall at Crick was the site of a
Celtic animism foci for healing cults: Sulis was prayed to as a healer at Aquae Sulis and the goddess Arnemetia was hailed as a healer at Aquae Arnemetiae. Nemausus, for example, was not only the Gallic name for the town of Nîmes but also that of its presiding spring-god. He had a set of three female counterparts, the Nemausicae. In the same region, the town of Glanum possessed a god called Glanis: an altar from a sacred spring is inscribed 'to Glanis and the Glanicae'. Meteorological patterns and phenomena, especially wind, rain and thunder, were acknowledged as inspirited and propitiated. Inscribed dedications