The Roads of Old England

Our motorway system means that today we think little of embarking on a journey across the country, confidently expecting to reach our destination the same day. Our ancestors would have taken weeks to complete such a trip, in considerable discomfort. Off the motorways, our roads follow routes laid down hundreds of years ago, and alongside them are fascinating objects which survive to tell the story of road development.

- John Husband

The earliest roads were prehistoric flint-ways, long-distance pathways used to trade flints. Many of these paths followed high ground and were known as ridgeways. Some survive today as long-distance footpaths, such as the Ridgeway across the Berkshire Downs to Ivinghoe Beacon in the Chilterns.

With the arrival of the Romans came a sophisticated road system, and when it was complete few places in England were more than 12 miles from a Roman road. As every schoolboy and girl knows, Roman roads were straight and this was relatively easy to achieve when land ownership was so ill-defined. The Romans introduced the first milestones, which were placed every thousand double paces, and the Latin word for a thousand, “mille”, gives us our British “mile”. Around 60 of these Roman milestones still survive. The distances were less than accurate as marching uphill led to shorter paces than marching on the flat or downhill! The names of Roman roads are still well known and recorded on Ordnance Survey maps. Who hasn’t heard of the Fosse Way or Watling Street? When the Romans left, the road system fell into disrepair.

Following the establishment of medieval markets another road system began to evolve, which eventually became known as the King’s Highway. Its width was defined by law as sufficient for a pair of wagons to pass or 16 knights to ride abreast along it. There was the ever-present threat of ambush and it was the responsibility of landowners to clear trees and shrubs beside the road.