ROMANO-BRITISH NORFOLK 



Camboritum to Lincoln involves on this hypothesis serious difficulties 

 into which we cannot now enter. It is sufficient to know that there is 

 good evidence for a Roman road from Colchester by Stratford and Scole 

 and Stratton to Caister. 



2. Longer road from Colchester to Caister. The first of the two 

 Itinerary routes which I have quoted, gives a route from Caister to 

 Colchester, which is 76 Roman miles long, and is therefore obviously 

 not direct. There are traces of such a route, and indeed more traces 

 than are needful (fig. 16). These traces indicate a road or roads deviating 

 from the direct road somewhere north of Ipswich, running north-east to 

 the vicinity of Yoxford and Dunwich, and thence running north-west to 

 rejoin the direct route near Caister. They consist of the place-name 

 Stratford between Wickham Market and Saxmundham ; the significantly 

 if intermittently straight road by Coddenham, Pettaugh, Earl Soham and 

 Peasenhall ; the similar road from Peasenhall to Weybread ; and the 

 name Stone Street applied to the road between Halesworth and Bungay. 

 These seem to indicate two roughly parallel routes, the one east of and 

 outside the other, but, as all the evidence for them is in Suffolk, we can- 

 not here discuss them further. It is, however, necessary to say thus 

 much, because they afford certain indications for Norfolk. If there was 

 a road from Peasenhall to Weybread, it probably entered Norfolk 

 at Needham or Harleston, and soon joined the direct route from 

 Colchester to Caister. If there was a road by Halesworth and Bungay, 

 it must have entered the county near Bungay, and, perhaps passing the 

 Street Farm at Bergh Apton, have joined the direct route near the gates ot 

 Caister. But till more evidence be forthcoming, we must be content with 

 saying that there was a longer road from Colchester to Caister, but that 

 its course, at least in Norfolk, is unknown.^ 



3. Northwards from Caister. Some antiquaries suppose that a 

 road ran from Caister (or Norwich) by Stratton Strawless to Cromer and 

 a Roman fort there. The idea, in this form, is a mere guess, unworthy 

 of attention, for there is no Roman fort near Cromer and no trace of the 

 road anywhere. However, the name Stratton and the remains at Rippon 

 Hall, Brampton and Buxton, immediately north of Stratton, may indicate 

 a not yet discovered road from Caister to Brampton. There is a Street 

 Farm at Brampton. 



4. Eastwards from Caister. A road has often been supposed to 

 have run from Caister (or Norwich) eastwards to Downham Market and 

 thence across the Cambridgeshire fens, a little north of March, to Peter- 

 borough and the Roman ' station ' at Chesterton. The western or Cam- 

 bridgeshire part of this road is tolerably well attested ; parts of it have 

 been properly traced and its nature ascertained by excavation, and though 

 nothing has been found to prove definitely its Roman origin, it is cer- 



* Camden thought to trace the longer route by a westerly deviation, through Thetford, and many 

 writers have followed him. But there are no Roman remains known at Thetford or other places 

 selected for this route, and there is no trace whatever of the road at any point (see the Index under 

 Thetford). 



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