A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



obtained by the actual remains of ancient metalling or milestones and occa- 

 sionally by the persistent straightness with which a still existing track runs 

 from one Roman site to another. The chief written evidence is the 

 ' Itinerarium Antonini,' a Roman road-book which gives the distances and 

 ' stations ' along various routes in the empire. Its exact date is uncertain, 

 though it is supposed to have been compiled in the early part of the 3rd cen- 

 tury. The only itinerary route which passes through Hertfordshire is Watling 

 Street, which forms a part of the second, sixth and eighth itineraries. 



Watling Street. — The considerable traffic which must have existed 

 between Verulamium and the Kentish ports to Gaul and Italy long before 

 the Claudian invasion would require a definite trade route. It is probable 

 that this route followed generally the course which Watling Street after- 

 wards took, particularly over the section between Verulamium and the 

 Thames. Here the British track seems originally to have had for its 

 southern objective the lowest safe ford across the Thames and not London, 

 which would have been its goal had the route been purely a Roman one. 

 After the Romans had established themselves here, probably towards the 

 close of the ist century, the British trackway may have been straightened 

 and metalled and adapted as a Roman road." 



Watling Street starts at Richborough near Sandwich in Kent and 

 passes in a north-westerly direction, eventually reaching Wroxeter. Its 

 course has always been so important that it has continued in use for the 

 greater part of its length to the present day. It enters the county from the 

 south in the middle of Elstree village just after diverging to avoid Brockley 

 Hill. As it passes through the village of Elstree it curves round to take up 

 its straight north-westerly direction again. It forms here the boundary 

 between Aldenham and Elstree parishes and follows the existing road which 

 skirts the east side of Aldenham Park and continues through Aldenham 

 parish and the hamlet of Radlett. A little to the north of Radlett it forms 

 the parish boundary between Aldenham and St. Stephen's" for about half a 

 mile. It then continues through the parish of St. Stephen's, passing through 

 the hamlet of Colney Street, about half a mile north of which it makes a 

 slight curve to the north-east to avoid the River Ver and the marsh land 

 adjoining. It then takes up its north-westerly course again through the 

 hamlets of Frogmore and Park Street. From Park Street it runs in a fairly 

 straight line to St. Stephen's Church where the present road diverges in a 

 north-easterly direction to St. Albans. The Roman road, however, has 

 been found paved with flints in the usual way with burials on either side, 

 continuing in a straight line through the garden of the house opposite 

 St. Stephen's Church and the field beyond to the south-east of the Roman 

 town of Verulamium. The causeway for the road over the ditch of the 

 town is here quite distinct, and the site of the gateway at the north-east end 

 of the Roman wall in the Verulam Woods can be discerned. The road 

 passes through the town of Verulamium, its course being marked for part 

 of the way by a line of trees,** It passed out of Verulamium on the north- 



** Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), xxiv, 137. 



^ Some fifteen years ago the eastern side of the road here for more than a mile was excavated in placet 

 to a depth of i 5 ft. for drainage works, but no sign of the Roman road was discovered. 



^* The road was found in the town and said to have been 18 ft. wide (Norden, speculum Brit. 25). 



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