Part of a Roman road 250m south of Stubb Hill Farm

Reasons for Designation

Roman roads were artificially made-up routes introduced to Britain by the Roman army from c.AD 43. They facilitated both the conquest of the province and its subsequent administration. Their main purpose was to serve the Cursus Publicus, or Imperial mail service. Express messengers could travel up to 150 miles per day on the network of Roman roads throughout Britain and Europe, changing horses at wayside 'mutationes' (posting stations set every 8 miles on major roads) and stopping overnight at 'mansiones' (rest houses located every 20-25 miles). In addition, throughout the Roman period and later, Roman roads acted as commercial routes and became foci for settlement and industry. Mausolea were sometimes built flanking roads during the Roman period while, in the Anglian and medieval periods, Roman roads often served as property boundaries. Although a number of roads fell out of use soon after the withdrawal of Rome from the province in the fifth century AD, many have continued in use down to the present day and are consequently sealed beneath modern roads. On the basis of construction technique, two main types of Roman road are distinguishable. The first has widely spaced boundary ditches and a broad elaborate agger comprising several layers of graded materials. The second usually has drainage ditches and a narrow simple agger of two or three successive layers. In addition to ditches and construction pits flanking the sides of the road, features of Roman roads can include central stone ribs, kerbs and culverts, not all of which will necessarily be contemporary with the original construction of the road. With the exception of the extreme south- west of the country, Roman roads are widely distributed throughout England and extend into Wales and lowland Scotland. They are highly representative of the period of Roman administration and provide important evidence of Roman civil engineering skills as well as the pattern of Roman conquest and settlement. A high proportion of examples exhibiting good survival are considered to be worthy of protection.

Despite some disturbance by a later track and the action of tree roots, the section of Roman road 250m south of Stubb Hill Farm survives well and will retain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to Roman engineering techniques and the landscape in which the monument was constructed. The monument is one of few lengths of Roman road surviving in earthwork form in south eastern England.

Details

The monument includes a c.120m long section of north-south aligned Roman road which crosses a greensand ridge c.20km north of Chichester. The road has a central agger, or raised cambered trackway, up to c.6.5m wide and 0.75m high. This has been partly disturbed by a modern track on its western side. The ground which flanks each side of the agger will contain features associated with the construction and use of the road, including quarry scoops, drainage channels and parallel boundary ditches. These have become infilled over the years but will survive in buried form. The road linked the two regional capitals of Chichester and Silchester, and most of the remainder of the route survives as a now levelled alignment which can be traced on aerial photographs. The modern surfaces of the more recent tracks which cross the monument are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

29270

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

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