The mutatio, on Ermin Street linking Silchester and Gloucester, would have provided a place for travellers to rest or change horses

At Gloucester services on the M5, travellers are resting and refuelling, taking a break from the demands of the road.

Just a few miles east, scores of archaeologists are completing a two-year project that has unearthed a forerunner of the site, a 2,000-year-old Roman take on the service station.