The Roman Roads

The Roman roads and their wider connections

[ The reader is advised to have a detailed OS map of the area to hand. A copy of the Cassini 1830-33 map would also be useful.]

The Roman military strategy of placing forts at one day’s march from the next certainly facilitated rapid troop reinforcement at trouble–spots. It did, however, depend on good communications and at the time that meant good roads.  Construction methods varied according to terrain and resources available. While some roads, such as the Appian Way in Rome, were surfaced with paving stones and edged with corbels, those in Britannia were usually faced with impacted gravel, with or without edging stones. Roads could be straight for long stretches, but in difficult terrain, bends and twists were not unusual. Roads could also vary in width considerably. Standard features tended to include a raised central ‘agger’, made from the material dug from drainage ditches on either side of the road. To this raised mound a substrate of larger stones was added before ‘metalling’ the surface with impacted gravel. This created a strong, impervious road capable of resisting, at least for a time, the wear and tear of weather, army boots, horses and wheeled vehicles. Whenever necessary, repairs could be made by adding further substrate and gravel.

The Roman road connecting Abergavenny and Longtown is not at present clear. It may have followed the route of the modern Hereford road as far as Pandy, turning left along the Monnow to Clodock and hence Longtown – a distance of 15 miles.  The road shows evidence of having long straight sections, which may have been rerouted in places due to such things as river incursions.

To the north of Longtown, there are a number of old trackways which could be contenders for a Roman road between Longtown fort and the legionary fortress at Clyro. The Cassini OS map of 1830-33 shows some remarkably straight roadways which avoid the low ground of the Monnow Valley and run north along the ridge to its east. One of these, no longer in use except by farm vehicles, can still be found above the ruins of Craswall Priory and can be followed for a considerable way. Whilst we cannot be sure of the precise route of a Roman road between the two forts, there are sufficient grounds for further investigation (see ‘further considerations’ sections below).

To the north–east of Longtown the next place of note would have been Credenhill fort, taken over by the Romans and possibly used as a supply base during the early campaign.  This would be  superceded by the town of Magnis later in the first century, but whether Longtown fort was still occupied by this time is open to question. Between Credenhill/Magnis and Longtown the Roman road is obvious for much of the route. After crossing the Wye close to the modern Weir Garden, the road, referred to as Stone Street in the OS maps, tracks south west in a straight line to Brampton Hill before meeting the modern B4347 close to Bacton village. Stone Street bears all the hallmarks of a Roman road, despite its having been modernised over much of its length; its straightness, relatively constant width, the fact that it follows both parish and field boundaries, even where the road itself is not obvious, all testify to both great antiquity and Roman engineering.

On close inspection, most of these features also become apparent over the next section of the road heading towards Longtown. While the B4347 takes a sharp turn south towards Abbey Dore and the Bacton road a sharp turn north, the line of the Roman road should continue west, but there is no obvious sign of it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons some have doubted the existence of the Longtown section of the road.

What is clear, however, from satellite images is that the line of the road continues as a boundary of two fields some 500m to the west before crossing a patch of rough ground and entering a small wood.

Field inspection of this patch of rough ground revealed some features which could indicate the remains of a raised roadway. Nothing was apparent within the wood, but the road appears to split at this point (see explanation below). The southern section is a tree-lined field boundary passing Holling Grange Farm and continuing to the Tremorithic (Tremorddig) road. This proved to be a raised, grassy trackway, some 5m wide and as much as 1m high in places.

Significantly, this trackway is also a parish boundary and continues the straight line of our putative Roman road. This is the highest point of the roadway at 300m.

Continuing west beyond the Tremorithic road, the track is indistinct at first, but becomes a raised bank between two gullies, one to the south containing a small stream, the other a ditch. 

The track here drops steeply to the Dulas Brook, currently crossed by a footbridge, and disappears in the field on the other side of the stream.

However, the Cassini OS map of 1830-1833 shows that a road crossed the stream at this point only 200 years ago, rising to the west to meet the long straight road across Lower Maescoed common, traditionally held to be Roman in origin.

Returning briefly to the east side of the Dulas Brook, the Cassini map also shows the old road diverging to the north away from the track before turning east again and running parallel to it. This divergence is clearly seen on the ground as a raised bank with ditches on either side, continuing uphill to meet the Tremorithic road opposite the current entrance to Upper House Farm. In the 1830s this farm road continued on to Bacton village. It seems likely that this alternative route uphill from the Dulas Brook was established to provide an easier angled ascent for horses and wagons, but whether it dates back to Roman times is open to question. It is certainly true that dual-carriageway roads over difficult terrain were not uncommon in Roman times.

Continuing west from Lower Maescoed, the line of the Roman road diverges slightly from the modern road, which loops to the south before meeting the St. Margaret’s road. The Roman road probably ran along the north edge of what is now a small area of heathland, continuing along field boundaries on the other side of the St. Margaret’s road to meet the Michaelchurch road opposite the lane to Llanwonog Farm.

These field boundaries form a remarkably straight alignment with this top section of Llanwonog Lane. Closer to Llanwonog Farm, the track descends steeply through a 5m deep sunken lane into the Monnow valley. Here, the lane is narrow and rocky at its base, having been washed out by winter rainwater over the centuries.  At the bottom of the hill, the sunken lane joins the metalled farm road, which crosses the Monnow and ascends through another sunken lane to Longtown castle. The modern road takes a dog-leg bend in front of the Baptist Church, but continuing the alignment of the ascending lane would take it into the centre of the northern bailey, perhaps adding support to the idea that this bailey was originally an annexe to the Roman fort. If so, a gateway between the annexe and the fort must have existed on the northern side, opposite the southern entrance coming in from Abergavenny. Without evidence, however, this northern annexe remains highly speculative. Other routes up to the fort from the bottom of Llanwonog Lane are possible. The Roman road may have followed the modern hedge boundaries south of Llanwonog Lane, entering the fort in the middle of the eastern rampart. The field boundaries, however, form the only evidence, as there is now no sign of an old track–way.

Taking all the evidence together – the field and parish boundaries, the remarkably straight alignment of the whole route and the numerous surface features still visible – it seems clear that we have been following the line of the Stone Street extension to Longtown fort, first mentioned in 1822 in ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’, but sadly giving no details as to the route. The deviation from the road east of the Dulas Brook, at the highest point on the road, may also be Roman in origin, separating slow-moving up-hill traffic from that moving down-hill.

Given the first century date of Longtown fort, it seems likely that this route would have been the main artery between Magnis and Abergavenny at that time and an important part of the longer Watling Street West extension from Wroxeter to Carmarthen, described as Journey 12 in the later Antonine Itinerary. With Longtown fort probably falling out of use in the later first or early second centuries, an alternative route via Pontrilas and Abbey Dore, postulated by Margery and others, may have been constructed later to avoid the higher ground. This would have been the only advantage, as the distances between Magnis and Abergavenny are the same for both routes – 22 miles. However, no trace of this second road has yet been found, except at Abbey Dore, although this may be part of a different route to Castlefield fort (see below). Assuming this second road was built, the Bacton-Longtown road, despite the loss of the fort, would still have continued in use for centuries afterwards, with some stretches obviously surviving to the present day.

Other Roman Roads in the Area

In 1908, the Hereford Times reported in its Illustrated Supplement that a section of Roman road had been uncovered at Abbey Dore railway station. Some Roman artefacts were also recovered, including some nails and a fragment of horseshoe. The surface of the road was 13 feet wide, cobbled but with no edging stones, and bore parallel deep ruts 4 feet 6 inches apart, worn by the repeated passage of wagons. These ruts lay to one side of the road, leaving a space of 5 feet for pedestrians and passing vehicles. The cobbles may have been covered at the time with a surface of impacted gravel.

Since this early discovery, further stretches of the road have been investigated over the years, between Abbey Dore and Peterchurch, all showing the same features – including the wheel ruts* That this is an ancient road, probably of Roman construction, but possibly even older, is undoubtedly true. Further artefacts have also been found, including a Roman-date horseshoe, etc. The road, now a walking track in places crosses Stone Street east of Bacton and runs north-west through Vowchurch, Peterchurch, Dorstone and, significantly, points directly towards the location of the Roman forts at Clifford.

South from the Stone Street crossing, the line of the road follows the disused railway-line in places, but also links with the modern B4347 to Abbey Dore and on to Ewyas Harold, where it skirts around Callow Hill Wood, crossing the A465 to join the B4347 to Kentchurch. This road may have been the important link between Clifford (and later Clyro) and the fort at Castlefield on the River Monnow between Kentchurch and Garway. Today the B4347 takes a complicated detour via Grosmont, but in Roman times it may have taken a more direct route to Castlefield along the north side of the Monnow.

Did this road extend all the way to Monmouth? Today it is difficult to see a clear single routeway, with the river Monnow taking many twists and turns, through a complex landscape of low hills. South of Castlefield, however, after crossing the Monnow, the route may have followed the line of the relatively straight B4347 through a narrow valley to the village of Norton to the west of Skenfrith. From here a route to the west of the low hills lying to the south of Skenfrith could have again connected with the B4347 at a place called ‘The Boot’ on the Cassini map. From here, south-east along another straight, narrow valley, the road passed through Rockfield and on to Monmouth. Was this route the Roman road between Monmouth and Castlefield? Of course we cannot be certain, but it would seem to satisfy Roman engineering requirements for the shortest route over the easiest terrain. It is also interesting that the modern road bears the same number all the way from Monmouth to Abbey Dore, despite some obviously later detours.

What is also noticeable when inspecting the above Cassini route, is that another road, very straight in sections, branches off at ‘The Boot’ to pass north to the west of the Grosmont hills to meet the Abergavenny–Longtown road close to modern Pandy! Could this have been another Roman road connecting Abergavenny, Longtown, Castlefield and Monmouth by a different route?

*Thomas, M. ‘An Ancient Track in the Golden Valley’. Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, (1987) 186-92.

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