ROMANO-BRITISH BERKSHIRE 



Roman road was discovered at Wood-Speen some years previously, but 

 it was not traced beyond the buildings that were then being erected. 1 

 It seems however very doubtful if any of these fragments of roads had 

 any connexion with the road here referred to. 



III. Route from Chicbester to London by Silchester and Staines. The 

 road from London commenced north of the Thames, crossed it probably 

 at Staines (Pontes) and ran almost due west, entering Berkshire near 

 Bagshot. Till the beginning of the last century some miles of cause- 

 way were visible on the heath between Bagshot and Finchampstead. 

 This was called ' The Devil's Highway,' a name which has since been 

 applied to the whole road between Staines and Silchester. The road 

 passes Rapley's Farm and Wickham Bushes where Roman remains were 

 discovered by Mr. Handasyd in 1783," whilst Caesar's Camp, which 

 though British in its origin was probably used during the Romano- 

 British period, 3 lies not half a mile to the north of it. On Easthamp- 

 stead Plain it can still be seen much in its original condition. It can 

 be traced again near Broadmoor and at Finchampstead where there are 

 remains of a rectangular camp.* West Court House is said to have 

 been built on it. Beyond the junction of the Blackwater and White- 

 water at Little Ford it is found making directly for Riseley village. 

 After crossing the Blackwater it enters Hampshire and runs in a straight 

 line to the east gate of Silchester. 



Route from Silchester to Dorchester (Oxon). Very few traces of this 

 road have been found. It left Silchester by the north gate and can be 

 traced from the city for nearly a mile, apparently through its extramural 

 cemetery. The Sandhurst officers ! who surveyed the country between 

 Silchester and Hungerford with the especial purpose of discovering re- 

 mains of Icknield Street between Dorchester and Winchester, found 

 indications of a Roman road in Aldermaston Park and near Ufton 

 Church. They inferred that it ran northwards from Silchester through 

 Ufton, crossed the Kennet at Theale, and followed the present road to 

 Pangbourne. 



Towards the close of the eighteenth century a short piece of a 

 Roman highway was supposed to have been discovered between the 

 river and the east corner of Bray churchyard." An old Roman 

 road, marked on the Ordnance Maps, can be traced from Braywick to 

 a tumulus at Cockmarsh in the parish of Cookham, 7 and may be an ex- 

 tension or branch of the road from Speen to Bray. There are indica- 

 tions of it at Wargrave on the line of its supposed course from Twyford 

 to Bray, in the form of a raised road with a fosse on either side. 8 



Of other early roads in the county the Ridgway and Icknield Street 

 or Ickleton Way are probably of a date before the Roman occupation, 



1 Hist, of Speen, p. 6. Arch. vii. 199-204. 



3 Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. Oct. 1901, 74. 



4 Ibid. W. Lyon, Chron. of Finchampstead, 7. 



United Service Journ. Sept. 1837, 7. Gent. Mag. 1795, pt. ii. 629-630. 



7 Kerry, Hist, and Antiq. of Bray, 150. 



8 Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. Jan. 1902, p. 120. 



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