What have the Romans ever done for us? Roads?

Author: Keys, D., (2011), “What did the Romans ever do for us if they didn’t build our roads”, The Independent, London, available online (accessed March 2011), published in The Imperial Courier, Volume 6, Issue 3, THE RMRS, p. 13.

The long-held belief that the Romans introduced “proper” roads to the UK was thrown into doubt after the discovery of a thoroughfare engineered by Iron Age Britons in 2011. Archaeologists working at Bayston Hill quarry near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, which fittingly is owned by modern-day road builders Tarmac, have found a metalled and cambered road. Dated to the 1st-century BC, the road was built around 100 years before the Roman invasion of AD 43. The discovery, revealed in the BBC History Magazine, for the first time demonstrated the sophistication of British Iron Age cross-country road construction. It offered useful insights into the relationships between the tribes that lived in the region. As the road was almost certainly created to take heavy traffic, its construction suggested a thriving trade route.

It was initially assumed that the 1.5 m high by 6 m wide metalled road found at the site was built after the invasion, but it did not quite fit in with the known Roman road network. Evidence of animal dung and dung beetles indicate that before its construction had been an early ancient livestock drove-way, which may have influenced the later Iron Age construction. The road was built with layers of brushwood (elder), a deep clay foundation, silt, and cobbles set into the silt to provide a good surface - the latter both extracted from the River Severn. A kerb system, kept in place by timber uprights, was included to prevent subsidence. The road had been regularly maintained and resurfaced at least twice during its life. Sample analysis of the brushwood and the sediment revealed the road was built in several phases, the latest of which was the century before the Roman invasion of AD 43.

There are other, older-established paths, such as the Jurassic Way linking Oxfordshire and Lincolnshire, but they are not engineered. Rather these paths have been beaten down by use. There is evidence of hard surfaces being laid within Iron Age settlements, but archaeologist Tim Malim of SLR, the UK environmental planning consultancy who co-directed the excavation team, noted at the time of the discovery that it was believed to be the first British-engineered road in a rural location. He said: “It's a very exciting discovery – a road like this has never been identified before. Obviously major routes were used throughout prehistory, and we know where some of these ran, but they were not constructed roads – they were just routes. The traditional view is that the Romans came to Britain, built the roads and civilised the people. But we have found that this road was built before the Romans invaded.”

The trade route theory was based on analysis of ruts identified in 400m of the road suggesting vehicles with axle widths of 1.9 m and wheels between 12 cm to 17cm wide plied the route. The route’s alignment suggested a connection between the Wrekin hill near Telford, thought to be the “capital” of the Cornovii tribe, to the tribal lands of the Ordovices further West. If correct, then farm produce may have been transported from the Midlands into Wales, with perhaps minerals being traded the other way. Theories aside, the discovery questions whether roads in other parts of Britain, long been thought to be Roman, were first built by local Britons.