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5 
Che Great Bridge of Burton-on-Crent, 
By H. A. Rye. 
READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 17TH, 1901, 
HE beginning of our bridge is lost in obscurity. For my own 
Cc part I believe that there is very little doubt that there was a 
bridge, such as I ventured to describe in my former paper on Monk’s 
Bridge,* that is to say, a bridge with stone piers and a timber roadway 
stood here in Roman times, and I think that Molyneux has proved 
that Via Devena or Rykenield Street ran from Leicester, past 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Burton-on-Trent, across Needwood Forest, 
skirting Hanbury and Uttoxeter to Tean; and, if so, the Great 
Bridge of Burton stood in Roman times. 
I am not going into this vexed question of where the Roman road 
might have crossed, but quite agree with Shaw that, considering the 
importance of the communication between the counties of Stafford 
and Derby at this point, it is highly probable that the bridge was of 
Roman origin. The Romans were such a highly military nation 
that they would not be contented with a ford upon such a river as 
the Trent, with the liability of their line of communication being cut 
off by flood that might last days or weeks. Molyneux says ina 
contribution to the ‘‘ Burton Weekly News and General Advertiser,” 
1876, ‘the buttresses in several instances were supported upon oak 
* Vol. IV. Part 1, 
