ROMAN ROADS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 93, 1 April 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

ROMAN ROADS.

The matn lines of Roman roads were tour in number, known as Four Ways, or royal roads—Wading Street, the Fosse, Ermine Street and Icknield Street (writes Mr. T. W. Wilkinson in “The Autocar.”) Each of these splendid channels of communication can be /traced fn part at the present time, and is worthy of careful examination. Watling Street, which, ultimately nad many branches, ran direct from the Kentish coast to Wroxecer, and thence northward in two sections to Carlisle and the neighbourhood of Newcastle. Though much of it is now merely a grass-grown track, there are long stretches still used by all kinds of traific. Two are north and south respectively of the Roman Clapham Junction, Pigh Cross, where Watling Street intersects the Fosse, and where stands a sbartered column to tell the wayfarer that he is on historic ground. “Traveller,” runs the inscription, “if you seek the footsteps of ancient Romans. here you may find them. Hence their most famous military ways, crossing one another, proceeded to the utmost limits of Brtain. Here, the Vennones had their settlement, and at the first mile along the street Claudius, the commander of a cohort, had his camp, and at the same distance along rh» Fos»e his r-omb.”

This pillar was erected in 1712, at the joint expense of Leicestershire and Warwcksliire, not only to.mark the site of the Roman station, Vennonae, but also because the spot was “esteemed the centre of England.”

Another remarkable feature of Watting Street is included. in kbe sectton from Manchester to Ilklcy and Aidborough It is a paved causeway over Blackstone Edge—the most perfect specimen of a Roman paved road in England.

The chief characteristic of Roman roads of the first- class was their immense solidity. In 1881 a portion «of the Fosse at Radstock was opened up, and the following construction shown: <1 ) Foundation of fine earth, hard ''f)- l aten m (2.) The bed of *lie inad, imposed of large stones, some of which were bedded in mortar. (3.) Small atones well mixed with mortar. (4.) Nucleus— i: mixture of lime, chalk, and powdered brick or tile, or of gravel, sand, and lime with clay. (5.) Pavement.

■ Tlie Stones.” reported one of a party o. archaeologists, “were of all sizes and shapes, the lime having been probably poured in afterwards. In this way tbe whole surface of the road was so firmly cemented together tha”, in removing it . . . . the stones more frequently rplit through the solid than separated at a joint ” The Roman roads in England, like all other Roman works were made, not for an age, but for all time.