Section of Roman road north of Rock

Summary

Section of Roman road 100m south-south-east of Mutton's Farmhouse.

Reasons for Designation

The section of Roman road, part of the Greensand Way, 100m south-south-east of Mutton's Farmhouse, near Rock, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: the earthworks of the road's agger are apparent and the buried deposits of the road and roadside ditches will survive beneath;

* Potential: the earthworks and buried deposits have the potential to inform on the construction, form and date of the road, and contain artefacts and ecofacts;

* Documentation: as a section of route 140 identified, catalogued and published by Ivan Margary in his seminal work on Roman roads in Britain;

* Rarity: around 9,500 miles of Roman road were thought to have been built during the Roman occupation, but a smaller proportion is known to survive physically and few are scheduled;

* Vulnerability; much of this route has been lost to modern housing, roads and commercial activity. Protecting this section will ensure its preservation for the future.

History

Historic England's Introduction to Heritage Assets (IHA) on Pre-Industrial Roads, Trackways and Canals (May 2011) explains that Roman roads frequently remain fossilised in the landscape as modern roads or later boundaries. Their most characteristic feature is their straight course. They rarely follow the natural lie of the land or adopt the easiest route, but run through natural features and across pre-existing boundaries. Changes in direction are angled rather than curved, often occurring on hilltops or higher ground from which the next section could be sighted by surveyors. Where the gradient was extreme a zig-zag course was adopted, though very occasionally cuttings may be seen. The hard and durable surfaces of Roman roads were designed to be suitable for heavy wheeled vehicles. Structural elements included the ‘agger’ (an embankment formed by material from side ditches or quarry pits), the road surface (metalling) and side ditches or quarry pits. The full width of a road was greater than the metalled surface since it also included the slopes of the agger and the side ditches or quarries, plus a cleared strip on either side for security. The overall width varied considerably, though the average was between 5m and 10m. The agger, which can survive to about 0.75m high, provided a firm, dry base for metalling materials. It was occasionally revetted with stone kerbs, sometimes supplemented by a central rib of stones. Unstable ground was sometimes consolidated with wooden piles or brushwood. The metalling, of materials gathered locally, generally consisted of two layers: a foundation of large stones with a layer of finer material on top. The passage of wheeled vehicles compacted the surface into a hard smooth layer and prevented the roads from becoming rutted and muddy. Side ditches tended to be U-shaped and shallow, about 0.5m deep and about 1-2m wide. They provided material for the agger and helped with drainage. Their place was sometimes taken by lines of quarry pits. London, the provincial capital, was the focal point of the Roman road system in Britain. Eight major roads connected it with other towns.

Ivan Margary’s seminal work on the Roman roads of Britiain (1955, republished in 1973) identifies a stretch of Roman road running east-west along an outcrop of Lower Greensand, approximately a mile to the north of the escarpment of the Sussex Downs. During the Roman period, extensive corn growing on the South Downs required ease of transportation from areas of production to markets; the Roman Greensand Way was part of that communication network.

Identified as Margary’s route 140, the Roman Greensand Way, extends for about 25 miles from Barcombe Mills in the east to Hardham on Stane Street (the Roman road from Chichester) to the west. It is recorded in the West Sussex Historic Environment Record as MWS7476. Sections of the road are traceable as earthworks, or following field boundaries or tracks. The section north of the hamlet of Rock and west of the A24 is noted on the current OS map; it follows the line of a private road and track north of Spring Gardens and includes the area assessed. It continues westwards, north of Heath Common, to Roundabout Farm south of West Chiltington Common, and westward crossing the north part of Hurston Warren Common, in line with the scheduled Lickfold bath house (National Heritage List for England 1005847) beside the road from Wiggonholt to Pulborough. Further to the west, Margary records that at the point where the road crosses the wide Arun marshes some of the flint metalling is still intact and is approximately 6m wide (1973, p68-70). Traces of the agger can also be seen to the south of Hardham Church maintaining the same alignment, meeting with Stane Street just outside the south gate of the scheduled mansio and settlement (NHLE 1005866).

Further to the east, the line of the road is postulated to follow the north boundaries of the properties known as Highdown, Highfield, Spring Garden Nurseries and Chancton View, continuing as a private road towards the A24 and continuing for a short stretch to the east of the A24. No visible remains of the road could be discerned, but a bank from the west boundary of Highfield, in line with the earthworks in the copse, may represent a continuation of the road. The added historic importance of the road is that it later formed the C10 boundary of the Anglo-Saxon Washington Estate (Robin Milner-Gulland, 2005).

There have been no archaeological investigations of this west section of the Greensand Way but trial trenches through the road at Barcombe (Wallace, 2007) and Plumpton (Millum, 2011) suggest a metalled surface of layers of sand and gravel forming a cambered ‘agger’ of between 6m and 15m wide.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS

The monument includes the earthworks and buried archaeological deposits of a section of the Roman road known as Greensand Way, located at NGR TQ 1189 1485 centre around 100m south-south-east of Mutton's Farmhouse (listed at Grade II, NHLE 1353958) in a small copse.

DESCRIPTION

The surviving earthworks of section of the road are most evident in a small copse next to the byway where they are covered with small trees and shrubs. The earthworks represent the agger of the road approximately 4m wide, with roadside ditches of approximately 1.25-1.50m wide to either side. No road surfaces are apparent, but will survive as buried features.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING

The scheduled area measures 105m east-west and 12m wide north-south. The monument is immediately to the south of a bridleway next to the copse on land which rises to the east. It extends from the property boundary of the house known as Highfield in the east, westwards to the point when the copse has been disturbed, approximately 14m to the east of the property boundary of Cartways Cottage. The land to the south is under pasture. The copse has a post and wire fence to the north and south which is excluded from the scheduling although the land beneath is included.

Sources

Books and journals
Margary, I D, Roman Roads in Britain, (1973), 63-70
Millum, D, What did Ivan Margary ever do for me? An excavation of the Roman Greensand Way at Plumpton in Sussex Archaeological Collections, Vol. 149, (2011), 25-34
Milner-Gulland, R, The Washington Estate: New Evidence on an Ancient Boundary in Sussex Archaeological Collections, Vol. 143, (2005), 1-8

Other
MA Dissertation by Robert Wallace (2007) 'A previously unknown Roman road: Offham to the Greensand Way, Barcombe Mills'

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry