ROMANO-BRITISH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



the higher and drier line, but the Sleaford route is no mere Fen road. 

 The western route in its commencement at Castor forms a straight line 

 with the road from Godmanchester to Castor, and therefore seems to be 

 the original route ; but the legionary tile at Hilly Wood may suggest 

 that some part, at least, of the eastern road is also of early date. 



Two other roads have also been thought to branch off near Castor. 

 The one runs west past the south side of Bedford Purlieus (p. 189) and 

 is represented by the existing Castor and KingsclifFe road, much of which 

 is curiously straight. Beyond its straightness however this road has no 

 definite sign of Roman origin and it leads to no known Roman site. 

 The other supposed road runs eastwards to Peterborough and thence 

 across the Fens to the Norfolk hills at Denver near Downham Market. 

 No certain trace of any such road exists in Northamptonshire. One 

 small piece has indeed been alleged to survive between Castor village 

 and Milton Park, but it is small and it is badly attested. East of Peter- 

 borough however the vestiges of an ancient road are certain, and if this 

 road was Roman, we might reasonably assume that it did not stop at 

 Peterborough but continued to Castor. 



So far we reach with our archxological evidence. Let us now 

 compare it with our written record in the Antonine Itinerary quoted 

 above. According to this document there was a route from Colchester 

 to Lincoln with various stations along it. This route is generally taken 

 to be the road which we have seen actually to run from Godman- 

 chester through Castor and Ancaster to Lincoln, with remains of towns 

 or villages at the places named. Unfortunately the distances of these 

 sites conflict violently with the mileage of the Itinerary. Ancaster for 

 instance is neither 16 nor 26 but 20 Roman miles from Lincoln; 

 Castor is not 30 but 35 Roman miles from Ancaster ; Godmanchester 

 is 20, not 35 miles from Castor. No alternative route however can be 

 reasonably suggested. If it be conjectured that the Fen road from 

 Norfolk is intended, that is, that the traveller by the Itinerary route 

 journeyed from Colchester to Venta (near Norwich) and thence through 

 Denver to Castor, the mileage is equally unsatisfactory, and suitable 

 stations are not to be found at all. Nor does it help to adopt the alter- 

 native route from Castor by Bourn and Sleaford to Lincoln, for part of 

 this route is uncertain and no station is known to occur along it. As 

 therefore we concluded in connexion with the name 'Durobrivae' (p. 167) 

 we shall do best on our present evidence to accept the route but ignore 

 the mileage. 



(3) One more supposed road deserves notice here. English anti- 

 quaries have often laid down on their maps and in their books a ' Via 

 Devana ' running more or less directly from Colchester by Cambridge 

 and Huntingdon to Leicester and finally to Chester, the Roman fortress 

 of Deva (Chester). There is no evidence whatever for the existence of 

 this supposed ' through-route ' across Britain, and the name ' Via Devana ' 

 is simply an invention of the modern antiquary. But parts of the route 

 may be accepted as independent roads of really Roman origin, and in 



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