ROMANO- BRITISH LEICESTERSHIRE 



Thurmaston, where a Roman milestone was discovered,* whence it proceeds 

 for 6J miles to Six Hills, where it leaves the county. 



3. The Gartree Road or Via Devana does not appear in the Itinerary 

 of Antonine. It has been laid down by many English antiquaries on their 

 maps or in their books as running more or less directly from Colchester by 

 Cambridge and Huntingdon to Leicester, and finally to Deva (Chester). 

 There is no evidence for the existence of the whole of this road, and the 

 name Via Devana is a modern invention. Parts of the route, however, may 

 be accepted as independent roads of Roman origin, and in particular it is 

 credible that a Roman road connected Leicester and Huntingdon. It enters 

 the county at Medbourne on the .boundary of Northamptonshire, 6 and can be 

 traced for 1 5 miles to Leicester, which it enters by the South Gate, here 

 probably to be identified with the existing Southgate Street and High Cross 

 Street. It leaves Leicester by the North Gate, 8 from whence its course is 

 uncertain but probable, and ran it would seem through Markfield and Coal- 

 ville to Ashby de la Zouch and Blackfordby, where it would leave the county. 

 From thence it continued to Burton on Trent, where it joined the 'Rycknield 

 Street ' on its route from Lichfield to Derby. 7 



The other roads in the county are less certain, and in some cases are 

 based upon very slight evidence. A straight road which leaves Watling 

 Street at Mancetter, pointing for 5 miles to Leicester, and continuing in the 

 same line by other roads, represents, it has been suggested, a possible Roman 

 route to Leicester. 8 In the north of the county there is a suggestion that 

 the road from Little Chester (Derby) to Sawley crossed the river at the point 

 where the Derwent and Soar join the Trent, and proceeded to join the Fosse 

 Way either at Willoughby in Nottinghamshire, which is perhaps the more 

 probable, or at Six Hills in Leicestershire, but the evidence either way is not 

 conclusive. 9 An equally uncertain route sometimes called the Salt Way is 

 supposed to have started at Six Hills and to have branched off to the north- 

 east to join Erming Street, near Ponton, in Rutland. 10 In evidence of this it 

 is said that from Six Hills a straight road is followed by a parish boundary 

 for 3 miles to the high ground near Dalby Tunnel, continuing with a slight 

 turn to the line of highways on the north of Croxton Park, which it 

 followed, and leaving Leicestershire at Croxton Kerrial. 11 



A route has also been suggested which would join the Rycknield Street 

 at Derby to the Erming Street at Stamford, in Northamptonshire, passing 

 through Sawley and Willoughby (Verometum). 



4 See Thurmaston, in Tofog. Index. 



4 Existing roads and boundaries tend to prove that this road ran on in the same straight line from Med- 

 bourne to Stanion in Northants, where its traces are lost, but are thought to be re-discovered on the eastern 

 side of that county, and to join the Roman road at Alconbury, in Huntingdonshire ; Haverfield, in V.C.H* 

 Northants, i, 206. 



6 Journ. Brit. 4rch. A 'ssoc. vii, 274. 



' Haverfield, in V.C.H. Northants, i, 206 ; in V.C.H. Derb. i, 251. 



8 Codrington, op. cit. 75. 



Haverfield, V.C.H. Derb. i, 246 ; Stukeley, Iter Boreal. 25. 



10 Nichols, Hist. Lew. cxlviii. 



11 Codrington, op. cit. 250 ; Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. vii, 274 ; this road is also supposed to have pro- 

 ceeded in the direction of Barrow on Soar to the south-west of Six Hills. 



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