The Chichester to Silchester Way is a Roman Road between
Chichester
Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only c ...
in
South-East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of england, ...
, which as ''Noviomagus'' was capital of the ''
Regni
The Regni, Regini, or Regnenses were a Tribe which occupied modern West Sussex, East Sussex, south-west Kent, eastern Surrey, and the eastern edges of Hampshire. Their Tribal centre was at Noviomagus_Reginorum (Chichester in West_Sussex), cl ...
'', and
Silchester or ''
Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum ("Calleva of the Atrebates") was an Iron Age oppidum, the capital of the Atrebates tribe. It then became a walled town in the Roman province of Britannia, at a major crossroads of the roads of southern Britain.
The modern villa ...
'', capital of the ''
Atrebates
The Atrebates (Gaulish: *''Atrebatis'', 'dwellers, land-owners, possessors of the soil') were a Belgic tribe of the Iron Age and the Roman period, originally dwelling in the Artois region.
After the tribes of Gallia Belgica were defeated by Cae ...
''. The road had been entirely lost and forgotten, leaving no
Saxon place names as clues to its existence, until its chance discovery through
aerial photography
Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography.
Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing airc ...
in 1949. Only of the long road remain in use.
Discovery
The existence of this road was unknown until 1949 when the archaeological division of the
Ordnance Survey, while examining aerial photographs of the
Milland
Milland is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is situated north of the A272 road on the border with Hampshire.
In the 2001 census the parish covered and had 332 households with a total population ...
area, noticed earthworks the size and shape of a Roman ''
mansio'', similar to those on
Stane Street at
Hardham
Hardham is a small village in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is on the A29 road southwest of Pulborough. It is in the civil parish of Coldwaltham.
Archaeology
The village is on the line of Stane Street Roman road, which ch ...
and Alfoldean.
Because the ''mansio'' stood on the shortest of the road's alignments this gave few clues to the overall route, and much further investigation of aerial photographs and remains on the ground was needed to establish the whole route.
[Petersfield Museum-section on roads]
Dating evidence
The road must be later than the Winchester to Silchester road, which it joins.
Design and construction
A single alignment between the two cities would have taken the road across many feeder streams of the
River Rother, crossing the river itself twice. A more easterly route was therefore taken using four alignments of straight sections of route, which crossed the Rother once at
Iping
Iping is a village and parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies within the civil parish of Stedham with Iping, just off the A272 road west of Midhurst. The village lies on the River Rother.
Etymology
The Old English ...
and joined the
Winchester to Silchester road about one mile south of Silchester, avoiding two stream crossings close to that city.
The road was wider than average for Britain and well constructed, with a layer of
flint or
gravel
Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gravel is classifi ...
on a cambered ''
agger Agger may refer to:
* Agger (surname)
* Agger (ancient Rome), a type of ancient Roman rampart or embankment
* Agger (river), a river in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
* Agger nasi, an anatomical feature of the nose
* Agger Rockshelter, in Wisconsi ...
''. A section excavated at
Milland
Milland is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is situated north of the A272 road on the border with Hampshire.
In the 2001 census the parish covered and had 332 households with a total population ...
had a 2 to 3-inch layer of gravel on a substantial cambered foundation.
Margary number
Ivan Margary
Ivan Donald Margary, (1896–1976) was a British historian who, during his lifetime, became the leading authority on Roman roads in Great Britain. He wrote numerous works on Roman roads of which his most influential and complete was ''Roman R ...
gave the road the
Margary number
Margary numbers are the numbering scheme developed by the historian Ivan Margary to catalogue known and suspected Roman roads in Britain in his 1955 work ''The Roman Roads of Britain''. They remain the standard system used by archaeologists and ...
155 in his identification system for
Roman roads in Britain.
The route
Chichester to West Lavant
Whether by chance or not the road starts from Chichester's north gate () on an alignment aimed directly at Silchester. It is not known if this was planned or if it followed an existing Iron Age track to
Bow Hill that happened to go in that direction.
West Lavant to Dunner Hill
At East Broyle Copse the road turns north on an alignment to Dunner Hill. It runs on or close to Brandy Hole Lane and passes on the west side of Lavant House School, from where Two Barns Lane runs upon it for about half a mile. Running up to Heathbarn Down, Margary found hedgerows on the line north of Binderton House and north from Henbush Copse. On the down the ''agger'' could be seen both on aerial photographs and on the ground, with outer ditches 60 feet apart. Undetectable past Hylters Farm, a slight ''agger'' is visible on Stapleash Down, then as a terraceway descending the down, the line passes east of Staple Ash Farm, then enters a wood called "The Ditches" where it can be traced as an ''agger'' then a terrace, then an ''agger'' again, as much as 30 feet wide with a lot of flint. In Linchball Wood the road curves a little to the east on a slight ''agger'', just inside the western boundary of the wood, followed by a parish boundary, reaching its highest point at . Here there are commanding views north across the
Western Weald
The western Weald is an area of undulating countryside in Hampshire and West Sussex containing a mixture of woodland and heathland areas.
It lies to the south of the towns of Bordon, Haslemere and Rake and to the west of the town of Pulborough. ...
and south to Chichester and the coast.
After crossing the ridgeway track, now the
South Downs Way the road descends the
scarp slope of the Linch Down in a northeasterly direction as an eroded terraceway, and lower down turns northward as a deep
hollow way
A sunken lane (also hollow way or holloway) is a road or track that is significantly lower than the land on either side, not formed by the (recent) engineering of a road cutting but possibly of much greater age.
Various mechanisms have been pr ...
, as it descends to Linch Farm, where there is an old chapel site. This line makes use of a northward spur of chalk. From here the road is followed by the farm track for some 500m before disappearing into the cultivated fields. The road can be found again along the west edge of Haccott's Copse, from where it passes east of Fitzhall to Fitzhall Heath where it passes between ''tumuli'' as a prominent ''agger''. The road continues across
Iping Common
Iping is a village and parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies within the civil parish of Stedham with Iping, just off the A272 road west of Midhurst. The village lies on the River Rother.
Etymology
The Old Englis ...
as an ''agger'' with ditches 60 feet apart, then a hollow, to cross the
A272 road before running as a slight terrace along the west edge of Crowshole Copse to the
River Rother. North of the river the road line crosses open fields before being followed by a hedge north of Hammer Lane; then an ''agger'' is visible in Captain's Wood before Iping Lane briefly follows it at Stubbhill Farm. The road then follows a terraceway up Dunner Hill, then descending by a zig-zag.
Dunner Hill to Weavers Down
After zig-zagging down Dunner Hill the next alignment to Weavers Down begins. Traces of ''agger'' across Iping Marsh lead to the ''mansio'' site at Weston's Farm.
This was slightly smaller than the sites on Stane Street at Hardham and Alfoldean. The road is then in modern use through
Milland
Milland is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is situated north of the A272 road on the border with Hampshire.
In the 2001 census the parish covered and had 332 households with a total population ...
to at least the northern end of the straight section, from where the line is uncertain until it can be found as a cutting, then a substantial causeway, at Chapel Common. Passing southwest of Hutfield Copse, the road crosses the
Sussex Border Path
The Sussex Border Path is a long-distance footpath around the borders of Sussex, a historic county and former medieval kingdom in southern England. The main path is long and stays close to Sussex's borders with Hampshire, Surrey and Kent, c ...
and soon enters the army training area at Weavers Down, with traces of an ''agger'' with side ditches running up to the crest of the hill, which is crossed on an eroded terrace.
Weavers Hill to Silchester
The road forms the central track of
Longmoor Military Camp
Bordon and Longmoor Military Camps are British Army training camps close to the A3 and A325 roads in and around the settlements of Bordon, Longmoor, Liss and Liphook in Hampshire, England. The main street of the Longmoor part of the camp is b ...
, then north of the
A3 road
The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classified ...
passes west of Woolmer Pond near Greatham, with an alignment change as it crosses the
A325 road
List of A roads in zone 3 in Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island ...
. It then passes through the western edge of
Blackmoor
Blackmore is a village in Essex, England.
Blackmore or Blackmoor may also refer to:
* Blackmore (name), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
* Blackmoor, Hampshire, a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England ...
and continues northwest through Binswood to cross the B 3004 road east of
East Worldham
East Worldham is a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is east of Alton; and south-west of Wyck. Hartley Mauditt and West Worldham are nearby, which, along with East Worldham, form the Parish of Worldham. The vill ...
, then crosses Wyck Lane not far from the site of a Roman building near Wyck Place. The road passes through
Upton Grey, east of
Old Basing, then through
Bramley, before joining the Winchester to Silchester () road.
In East Hampshire the road passed through a Roman wine-growing area, and was close to
Alice Holt Forest
Alice Holt Forest is a royal forest in Hampshire, situated some south of Farnham, Surrey. Once predominantly an ancient oak forest, it was particularly noted in the 18th and 19th centuries for the timber it supplied for the building of ships fo ...
, where pottery was produced on an industrial scale in Roman times. Alice Holt pottery has been found along the Sussex and Hampshire coast.
Alice Holt in the Roman Period-aliceholt.org
See also
* Roman Britain
* Roman roads in Britain
References
External links
{{Commons category, Chichester to Silchester Roman road
A map of the known Roman road network in south east England using the Margary numbering system by Keith Briggs. (Chichester to Silchester number 155)
Roman roads in England
Archaeological sites in Hampshire
Archaeological sites in West Sussex