Webster's model of the Roman fortress and a life-size replica of a Roman legionary in full armour stick in the mind of any who have visited the gallery The latter wore armour replicated by H. Russell-Robinson of the Royal Armouries, who thereby became instrumental in unravelling the secrets of segmented Roman armour.The work that Webster carried out in researching the new gallery resulted in first a booklet and, by 1969, a volume on the Roman army (The Roman Army) that remains, in its third edition, a standard text book on the subject. The largest part of the museum's collection, its Roman inscriptions, formed the basis for another catalogue, A Short Guide to the Roman Inscriptions and Sculptured Stones in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (1950) that was a pioneer in its field. Whilst working at the Grosvenor, Webster formed links with Donald Atkinson at Manchester University where he studied for his MA, a qualification that gave him the academic grounding for his new profession.Webster's interest in the Roman army continued to blossom and led to a PhD on military activity along the Fosse Way, the Roman road running roughly from the Severn Estuary to Lincoln.
This, he believed, betrayed evidence for a major change in Roman strategy during the conquest of the island by the Emperor Claudius. His interpretation of the archaeological evidence of the sites along this road corridor led him to assert that the Romans had not intended to conquer the whole of the island but instead only wished to keep within lowland Britain (i.e to the east of this line). The theory, first published as "The Roman Military Advance Under Ostorius Scapula" in The Archaeological Journal in 1960, was elaborated in four books over the next two decades giving a detailed, and highly readable account, of the conquest of Britain: The Roman Conquest of Britain (with Donald Dudley, 1965), Boudicca (1978), The Roman Invasion of Britain (1980) and Rome Against Caratacus (1981).His theory initially gained wide acceptance but it is now fair to say that it is not generally accepted as having been a deliberate Roman policy, although Webster was surely correct to identify the Fosse line as an initial objective of the conquest period. Unusually for the time, his work on the Fosse Way led him to close study of the German frontiers and collaboration with colleagues there. His interest was rewarded with election to the Deutschen Archeologischen Institute in 1965 and he was for many years an important contributor to the Limes Kongress that studied the archaeological evidence for frontiers throughout the Empire.In 1953, Webster was invited to collaborate with Dame Kathleen Kenyon in running a training excavation on a Roman town house at Wroxeter Roman City in Shropshire. The next year, he was invited by Donald Dudley to become a lecturer in Romano-British Archaeology in the Extra-Mural Department at Birmingham University, where he remained for the rest of his working life. This ushered in perhaps the most important phase of his life: the training of a whole generation of British archaeologists.The small-scale excavation of the town house only lasted two years but in 1955 Webster transferred to the neighbouring site of Wroxeter's town baths, recently acquired by the state and then being consolidated by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, the predecessor of English Heritage.
For the next 30 years he ran a training excavation here, unravelling the complex genesis of the abandoned Roman city and its underlying fortress.His associates here included such luminaries as Charles Daniels, Anthony Barrett and Philip Barker, the latter graduating to his own part of the Wroxeter baths site in 1966. Much was made of the contrasts between their two differing styles of excavation, and it was often assumed that there was a degree of personal animosity between the two. This was not the case: their approaches were certainly different but they remained personal friends until Webster's illness and Barker's failing health parted them.Webster's other major excavations, also run as training schools, included the rescue investigation of the invasion period fort at Waddon Hill, Dorset, the long-term excavation of the villa at Barnsley Park, Gloucestershire, and investigations at Great Casterton in Rutland. These training schools, along with that at Wroxeter, were famed for their intensity, good humour, and vocational strengths.
