ROMANO-BRITISH NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



of the pavement of the Fosse as visible a little east from Widmerpool by Lodge- 

 in-the-Wolds and then again at East Bridgeford and near CoUingham.*^ 

 Nearly a century after Stukeley, Laird wrote, ' This road may be easily traced 

 for many miles along the Wolds and it is literally 2. fosse, dug so deep that an 

 army might march along it even now without being seen except by those on 

 the very edge of the bank. Several of the roads through the wolds cross it in 

 different places, particularly about Owthorpe, and in many parts the remains of 

 the old pitching with stones set on edge may be found by clearing away the 

 grass and weeds.'*' Twenty-five years ago Watkin found the Fosse about here 

 much in the same state, and described it as grass-grown with its pavement 

 full of deep ruts.*^ 'From Widmerpool station,' says Codrington, 'for a mile 

 a narrow metalled road runs along the middle between fences twenty yards or 

 more apart, and then turns off, the wide green road continuing on to Six Hills 

 (447 ft.), eight-and-a-half miles from Cotgrave.' In Cotgrave parish a late 

 Roman burial has been unearthed close to the road, and finds of coins are 

 recorded at Hickling and Widmerpool.^" 



A little more than two miles from Widmerpool station brings the road 

 to the site of Vernemetum at Willoughby." Thence it follows the county 

 boundary for about two-and-a-half miles to Six Hills,^' where it finally leaves 

 it for Leicestershire. 



(2) ERMINE STREET 



The fifth and eighth routes of the Antonine Itinerary followed a branch 

 of the so-called Ermine Street, which led from Lincoln to York, and crossed 

 North Nottinghamshire on its way.^^ The routes are given as follows : — 



Iter V (London to Carlisle) Iter VIII (York to London via Leicester) 



Causennis . . — Dane — 



Lindo (Lincoln) . . . . M.P.M. xxvi Ageloco M.P.M. xxi 



Segeloci (Littleborough) . . . M.P.M. xiiii Lindo M.P.M. xiiii 



Dano (Doncaster) M.P.M. xxi 



It branches off" from the northward road about four miles beyond Lincoln, 

 and some writers like to speak of it as a via vicinalis, others give it the name 

 of Ermine Street itself. In all probability it was a more convenient route 

 to York than the more direct one which involved the crossing of the Humber 

 estuary. Segelocum and Agelocum, as given in the two routes, are only 

 forms of the same name, and the former is to be traced on a milestone found 

 at Lincoln with the distance of this stage given as in the Itinerary, fourteen 

 miles."* 



From Lincolnshire, where it is known as Till Bridge Lane, this road 

 crossed the Trent and entered Nottinghamshire at Littleborough, the site of 

 Segelocum, where a Roman ford is still said to exist. ^^ There is a road hence 

 in a line with Till Bridge Lane, as far as the village of Sturton-le-Steeple, and 



'"Essay towards the Recovery of the Courses of the four Great Roman Ways,' apud Leland, I tin. vi,. 

 1 16. '^Beauties of Engl, and Wales, xii, (i), 5. 



" Arch. Journ. xiiii, 42. ™ See Index. 



" See below, p. 17. " See F.C.H. Leic. i, 217. 



" Wesseling, Fet. Rom. Itin. (1735), 474 ; Horsley, Brit. Rom. 439 ; Jssoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. ix, 167 ;. 

 Antiq. xxxviii, 295. " See p. 19. " Ibid. 



292 



