Roman Roads in Britain - Archaeological Evidence

Archaeological Evidence

Extant remains of Roman roads are often much degraded or contaminated by later surfacing. Well-preserved sections of Roman road include Wade's Causeway in Yorkshire, and at Blackpool Bridge in the Forest of Dean, although their integrity as original Roman surfaces is not certain. 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. However, there are numerous tracts of Roman road which have survived, albeit overgrown by vegetation, in the visible form of footpaths through woodland or common land. e.g. the section of Stane Street crossing Eartham Wood in the South Downs near Bignor (Sussex). This and others like it are marked on Ordnance Survey maps with dotted lines and the rubric "ROMAN ROAD". Peddars Way in Norfolk is a Roman road converted into a long-distance footpath.

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 4 mi (6.4 km) - the most a horse could safely be ridden hard - there would be a mutatio (literally: "a change"), essentially stables where mounted messengers could change horses and a tavern to obtain refreshment. Cavalrymen from auxiliary mixed infantry- and cavalry- regiments (cohortes equitatae) provided most of the army's despatch-riders (dispositi). 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 despatch from the army base at York to London - 200 mi (320 km), a journey of over a week for a normal mounted traveller - could be delivered in just 10 hours. Because mutationes were relatively small establishments, and their remains ambiguous, it is difficult to identify sites with certainty.

Approximately every 12 mi (19 km) - a typical day's journey for an ox-drawn wagon - was a mansio (literally: "a sojourn", from which derive the English word "mansion" and French maison or "house"). This was a full-scale wayside inn, with large stables, tavern, rooms for travellers and even bath-houses in the larger establishments. Mansiones also housed detachments of troops, primarily auxiliaries, which regularly garrisoned and patrolled the roads along their whole length. These would check the identities, travel permits and cargoes of road users. Mansiones may also have housed the agents of the imperial procurator (the chief financial officer in the province) who collected the portorium, an imperial toll on goods in transit on public roads that was charged at 2% - 2.5% of the value. The tax would be exacted when the goods crossed fixed toll points along the roads, which likely were located in or near mansiones. At least half a dozen sites have been positively identified as mansiones in Britain. e.g. the excavated mansio at Godmanchester (Durovigutum) on Ermine Street (near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire).

Mutationes and mansiones were the key infrastructure for the cursus publicus (the imperial postal and transport system), which operated in many provinces of the Roman Empire. The cursus was primarily concerned with the carriage of government or military officers, government payload such as monies from tax collection and for military wages, and official despatches, but it could be made available to private individuals with special permission and for a fee. In Britain, the Vindolanda tablets, a series of letters written on wooden tablets to and by members of the garrison of Hadrian's Wall, show the operation of the cursus on the island.

Milestones, of which 95 are recorded in Roman Inscriptions of Britain. Most of these date from the later part of the Roman period (250 AD onwards), since it was the practice to replace a road's milestones when a major repair was carried out. Milestones were usually cylindrical and 2–4 m (6 ft 7 in–13 ft 1 in) in height. Most contain only the customary dedication to the current Emperor and the number of miles to a particular destination. Only three provide additional information: two are dedicated by the public works departments of a civitas (county) (Dobunni) and a city (Lincoln), showing the involvement of local authorities in road maintenance; and the third records that the Emperor Caracalla (r. 211-217) "restored the roads, which had fallen into ruin and disuse through old age".

Maps and Itineraries of the Roman era, designed to aid travellers, provide useful evidence of placenames, routes and distances in Britain. The most important is the Antonine Itinerary, dating from the later 3rd century, which contains 14 itineraries on the island.