Watling Street
Watling Street | |
---|---|
Saxon Britain | |
Margary number | 1 |
Major junctions | |
From | The Kentish ports |
Canterbury, London, St Albans | |
To | Wroxeter |
Location | |
Country | United Kingdom |
Road network | |
Watling Street is a
First used by the ancient Britons, mainly between the areas of modern
The Roman
In the early 18th century, England's first
The route from London to Wroxeter forms much of the
Name
The original
The original Anglo-Saxon name for the section of the route between Canterbury and London was Casingc Stræt or Key Street, a name still borne by a hamlet on the road near Sittingbourne.[3] This section only later became considered part of Watling Street.[3]
Used as a boundary
Watling Street has been used as a boundary of many historic administrative units, and some of these are still in existence today, either through continuity or the adoption of these as by successor areas. Examples include:
- Watling Street was used as a boundary in the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum and it is often inferred that this made the road the SW boundary of the Danelaw.[4]
- It is the boundary of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, this may be a legacy of the treaty described above.
- Watling Street forms part of the boundary of four London Boroughs (West and North London.[5]
History
British
The broad, grassy
Westminster ford
There is a longstanding tradition that a natural ford once crossed the Thames between Thorney Island, (present-day
Several factors may have slowed the river here, leading to the depositing of enough sediments to create a usable ford:[9]
- The bend in the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge.
- The two arms of the River Effra joining in that vicinity, depositing their own load, with the cross-flow causing the Thames to eddy and slow.
- Similarly the southern arm of the Tyburn, once joined the Thames at this point, on the northern bank.
- These factors mean the area is likely to have been the tidal head for some of the historic period.
Roman
The
The 2nd-century
...from the port of Ritupis ,
|
481 Roman miles , |
thus: | |
---|---|---|---|
From Blatobulgium | [ Birrens ] |
to the Netherby ], |
12 |
To Luguvalium | [ Carlisle ] |
12 | |
To Voreda |
[ Old Penrith ] |
14 | |
To Bravoniacum |
[Kirkby Thore] | 13 | |
To Verterae | [Brough] | 13 | |
To Lavatrae | [Bowes] | 14 | |
To Cataractonium | [Catterick] | 16 | |
Isurium |
[Aldborough] | 24 | |
Eboracum | [York], | [6th Victorious Leg.], | 17 |
To Calcaria | [Tadcaster] | 9 | |
To Cambodunum |
[ Slack ] |
20 | |
To Mamucium | [Manchester] | 18 | |
To Condate |
[Northwich] | 18 | |
To Deva | [Chester], | 20th Vict. Leg. |
20 |
To Bovium |
[Tilston] | 10 | |
To Mediolanum | [Whitchurch, Shropshire] | 20 | |
To Rutunium | [Harcourt Park] | 12 | |
To Viroconium |
[Wroxeter] | 11 | |
To Uxacona | [ Redhill ] |
11 | |
To Pennocrucium | [Penkridge] | 12 | |
To Letocetum | [Wall] | 12 | |
To Manduessedum | [Mancetter] | 16 | |
To Venonae |
[High Cross] | 12 | |
To Bannaventa | [Norton] | 17 | |
To Lactodurum | [Towcester] | 12 | |
To Magiovinium |
[Fenny Stratford] | 17 | |
To Durocobrivae |
[Dunstable] | 12 | |
To Verulamium | [St Albans] | 12 | |
To Sulloniacae |
[Stanmore] | 9 | |
To Londinium | [London] | 12 | |
To Noviomagus | [unknown] | 10 | |
To Vagniacae |
[Springhead] | 18 | |
To Durobrivae |
[Rochester] | 9 | |
To Durolevum | [unknown] | 13 | |
To Durovernum |
[Canterbury] | 12 | |
To the port of Ritupis |
[Richborough] | 12 |
Battle of Watling Street
Some site in the middle section of this route is supposed by most historians to have been the location of G. Suetonius Paulinus's decisive victory over Boudica's Iceni in AD 61.
Subsidiary routes
The two routes of the
The more direct route north from
Saxon
By the time of the
A number of Old English names testify to route of Watling Street at this time:
Viking
Following the
Norman
It is assumed that the pilgrims in
Modernity
The first turnpike trust in England was established over Watling Street northwest of London by an Act of Parliament on 4 March 1707 in order to provide a return on the investment required to once more pave the road.[17] The section from Fourne Hill north of Hockliffe to Stony Stratford was paved at a cost of £7000[b] over the next two years. Revenue was below expectations; in 1709, the trust succeeded in getting a new act extending the term of their monopoly but not permitting their tolls to be increased. In 1711, the trust's debts had not been discharged and the creditors took over receivership of the tolls. In 1716, a new act restored the authority of the trust under the supervision of another group appointed by the Buckinghamshire justices of the peace. The trust failed to receive a further extension of their rights in 1736 and their authority ended at the close of 1738. In 1740, a new act named new trustees to oversee the road, which the residents of Buckinghamshire described as being "ruined".[18]
The road was again paved in the early 19th century at the expense of
Much of the road is still in use today, apart from a few sections where it has been diverted. The
The name Watling Street is still used along the ancient road in many places, for instance in Bexleyheath in southeast London and in Canterbury, Gillingham, Strood, Gravesend, and Dartford in Kent. North of London, the name Watling Street still occurs in Hertfordshire (including St Albans), Bedfordshire (Dunstable), Buckinghamshire (Milton Keynes), Northamptonshire (Towcester), Leicestershire (Hinckley), Warwickshire (Nuneaton and Atherstone) and in Staffordshire (Cannock, Wall, Tamworth and Lichfield). (There are Watling Streets in Shropshire (Church Stretton)[20] and in Gwynedd (Llanrwst), but neither is on the original route.)
Other Watling Streets
Gallery
-
A detail from a 1910 map displaying the Welsh "Watling Street"
-
A detail from the same map displaying the Northwest "Watling Street"
-
A detail from the same map misattributing Dere Street as "Watling Street"
See also
- Roman Britain
- Roman roads in Britain
- Shakespeareanplay
Notes
- ^ The sign shown is actually on the A5 on a new route just to right of the picture.
- ^ About £1.3 million today.
- ^ For example, through Milton Keynes, the A5 is diverted onto a new dual carriageway while Watling Street proper remains and forms part of the Milton Keynes grid road system.
References
- ^ ISBN 071904491X. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ John Cannon, A Dictionary of British History, 2009.
- ^ a b Margary 1973, p. 34.
- ^ Bishop 2014, p. 160.
- ^ "Policy 2.5, sub-regions", London Plan, chapter 2, Greater London Authority, 2016, archived from the original on 26 December 2018, retrieved 29 April 2020
- ^ "Loftie's Historic London (review)". The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art. 63 (1, 634): 271. 19 February 1887. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- ^ Ditchfield, Peter Hampson (1901). English Villages. London: Methuen. p. 33.
- ^ Spence, Martin (8 January 2017). "The Lambeth Ford and Roman Watling Street". Penge Past.
- ^ "Vauxhall: excavation and discussion". Time Team. Season 9. Episode 1. Channel Four. (from 34:50)
- ^ ISBN 9781107047570.
- ^ Although it is possible the Romans used a ferry prior to the expansion of Londinium in the rebuilding following Boudica's sack of the city in the year 60 or 61.[10]
- ^ Margary, Ivan D. (1948). Roman Ways in the Weald (third ed.). London: J. M. Dent. p. 126.
- ^ a b c Itinerarium Antonini Augusti. Hosted at Latin Wikisource. (in Latin)
- ^ a b c "The Antonine Itinerary". Roman Britain. (in Latin and English)
- ^ a b "Leges Edwardi Confessoris (ECf1), §12", Early English Laws (in Latin), London: University of London, 2015, retrieved 20 February 2015
- Herningestrate" (Ermine Street).[15]
- ^ "House of Lords Journal". British History Online. University of London. Retrieved 3 June 2008.
- ^ Bogart, Dan (2007). "Evidence from Road and River Improvement Authorities, 1600–1750" (PDF). Political Institutions and the Emergence of Regulatory Commitment in England. University of California. Retrieved 3 June 2008.
- ^ Britain's hidden history – London's missing Roman road.
- ^ Victoria County History - Shropshire A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 10, Munslow Hundred (Part), the Liberty and Borough of Wenlock, Church Stretton
- ^ "Bury Metropolitan Council—History". Archived from the original on 2 July 2010..
- ^ Ratledge, David; Buckley, Neil (August 2018). "The Roman Road from Chester to Northwich". Roman Roads Research Association. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
Bibliography
- Bishop, MC (2014). The Secret History of the Roman Roads of Britain. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-84-884615-9.
- ISBN 0212970011
- Roucoux, O. (1984), The Roman Watling Street: from London to High Cross, Dunstable Museum Trust, ISBN 0-9508406-2-9.
- ISBN 978-1-4746-0347-8
External links
- "Watling Street – A Journey through Roman Britain" by the BBC
- "Walking Britain's Roman Roads" by My5
- "Stone Street, Suffolk", at the University of Chicago