The Roman road from Silchester to Bath connected
Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum ("Calleva of the Atrebates") was an Iron Age oppidum, the capital of the Atrebates tribe. It then became a walled town in the Roman province of Britannia, at a major crossroads of the roads of southern Britain.
The modern villa ...
(
Silchester
Silchester is a village and civil parish about north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is adjacent to the county boundary with Berkshire and about south-west of Reading.
Silchester is most notable for the archaeological site and Roman town of ...
) with
Aquae Sulis
Aquae Sulis (Latin for ''Waters of Sulis'') was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is the English city of Bath, Somerset. The Antonine Itinerary register of Roman roads lists the town as ''Aquis Sulis.'' Ptolemy records ...
(
Bath) via Spinae (
Speen),
Cunetio (near
Marlborough
Marlborough may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
** Marlborough College, public school
* Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England
* The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England
Austral ...
) and Verlucio (near
Sandy Lane). The road was a significant route for east–west travel and military logistics in south-east England during the 1st to 5th centuries.
Parts of its route were subsequently followed by earthworks that are presumed to form part of
Wansdyke. During the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, the road was
used by drovers, as well as by merchants and travellers.
Margary numbered the road as 53. Portions of the Roman road are extant, while in other places all apparent vestiges are absent from view. In the early 19th century,
Colt-Hoare surveyed and mapped its course from
Overton Down
Overton Down Experimental Earthwork (often referred to simply as Overton Down) is a long-term project in experimental archaeology in Wiltshire, England. In 1960 an earthwork was built to simulate such ancient structures. Various objects were pl ...
(west of Marlborough) to Bath; the rest was only known in isolated sections until a study by Hugh Toller was published in 2013.
See also
*
Roman roads in Britain
Roman roads in Britannia were initially designed for military use, created by the Roman Army during the nearly four centuries (AD 43–410) that Britannia was a province of the Roman Empire.
It is estimated that about of paved trunk ro ...
References
External links
The road superimposed on a Google Map– saxonhistory.co.uk
Silchester to Bath
Archaeological sites in London
Archaeological sites in Hampshire
Archaeological sites in Berkshire
Archaeological sites in Somerset
{{UK-road-stub