Roman Roads

Roman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the vast standing Roman Army (in the 2nd century, c. 28 legions plus auxiliary units, totaling c. 400,000 troops, of which c. 50,000 deployed in Britain), constituted the three most impressive features of the Roman Empire. In Britain, as in other provinces, the Romans constructed a comprehensive network of paved trunk roads (i.e. surfaced highways) during their nearly four centuries of occupation (43 - 410 A.D.).

The pre-Roman Britons used unpaved track ways for their communications, including very ancient ones running along elevated ridges of hills, such as the South Downs Way, now a public long-distance footpath. In contrast, most of the Roman network was surveyed and built from scratch, with the aim of connecting key points by the most direct possible route. The roads were all paved, to permit even heavy freight wagons to be used in all seasons and weather.

Most of the known network was complete by 180 A.D. Its primary function was to allow the rapid movement of troops and military supplies, but it also provided vital infrastructure for trade and the transport of goods.

Roman roads remained in use as core trunk roads for centuries after the Romans withdrew from Britain in 410 A.D. Systematic construction of paved highways did not resume in England until the 18th century.

The old Roman proverb that "all roads lead to Rome" was largely applicable in Roman Britain (Britannia) to London (Londinium), the city founded on a virgin site by the Romans, which soon became the province's capital and largest city. From London, six core routes radiated.

Nowadays you can see part of a Roman Road in the Crypt of All Hallows by the Tower.

Historical development

The earliest roads, built in the first phase of Roman occupation (the Julio-Claudian period 43–68), connected London with the ports used in the invasion and with the earlier legionary bases.

Construction and maintenance

Standard Roman road construction techniques, long evolved on the Continent, were used. A road occupied a wide strip of land bounded by shallow ditches, varying in width from 86 pedes (25.3m) on Ermine Street in Berkshire to 338 pedes (100m) on Ackerman Street in Oxfordshire. In the centre a carriageway was built on a raised agger after stripping off soft topsoil, using the best local materials, often sand or sandy gravel. The two strips of ground between the agger and the boundary ditches were used by pedestrians and animals, and were sometimes lightly metallic. The agger was sometimes, but not always, bordered by deep ditches to take rainwater and keep the road structure as dry as possible. The metalling was in two layers, a foundation of medium to large stone covered by a running surface, often a compacted mixture of smaller flint and gravel.

Archaeological evidence

Extant remains of Roman roads are often much degraded or contaminated by later surfacing. In many places, Roman roads were built over in the 18th century to create the turnpikes. Where they have not been built over, many sections have been ploughed over by farmers and some stripped of their stone to use on turnpike roads.

Wayside stations have been identified in Britain. Roman roads had regularly spaced stations along their length - the Roman equivalent of motorway service areas. Roughly every 5 miles (8 km) - the most a horse could safely be ridden hard - there would be a mutation (literally: "a change"), essentially stables where mounted messengers could change horses and a tavern to obtain refreshment. Relays of fresh riders and horses careering at full gallop could sustain an average speed of about 20 mph (32 km/h). Thus an urgent dispatch from the Army base at York to London - 200 miles (320 km), a journey of over a week for a normal mounted traveller - could be delivered in just 10 hours. Because mutations were relatively small establishments, and their remains ambiguous, it is difficult to identify sites with certainty.

Post-Roman legacy

In some places, the origins of the roads were forgotten and they were ascribed to mythical Anglo-Saxon giants and divinities: for instance, Wade's Causeway in North Yorkshire owes its name to Woden, the supreme god of Germanic and Norse mythology. Chaucer's pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales almost certainly used Watling Street to travel from Southwark to Canterbury.

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