The Romans, said Alan, left us a legacy of thousands of miles of roads, some of which exist to this day.

 

Iron Age tribes in Britain did build roads, but these tended to be short and local, and there was no road network.  Examples are the Ridgeway across the Wiltshire and Berkshire Downs and the Icknield Way. Archaeologists in Shropshire have found a metalled road dated to about 100 BC – built on a clay foundation with brushwood and cobbles from the Severn.

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By contrast, the Romans built at least 8,000 miles of road in Britain, the main routes being Ermine Street, Watling Street, the Fosseway and the Icknield Way.  There were not many roads in Worcestershire although the salt way through Droitwich was important. The Romans built roads at speed. In AD 14 a network of roads extended across Europe to the channel.  Claudius invaded in AD 43, and by AD 81 the British road network was essentially complete.

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The architect Vitruvius in his work De Architectura described the best manner of constructing roads: the ideal road was 4-9 metres wide, laid on a foundation of stone, gravel and mortar, cambered for drainage and with ditches on either side.  (The paved roads we are familiar with from images of streets in Pompeii were probably only seen in urban settings.) The standard road width allowed for two vehicles to pass, and often a path 1-3 m wide ran alongside the road for pedestrians. The roads were used by the military and by government messengers as well as by members of the public.

 

A day’s journey for a messenger was typically 40-60 miles although express messengers could travel up to 100 miles per day with changes of horses.  Mansios or tabernae catered for official travellers along the roads; to use them one had to have an official authorisation.  Pliny the Younger, (Governor of Bythinia during the reign of Trajan) was an issuer of such diplomata, as they were known.

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A Roman mile was 1,000 strides – about 1481 metres – and milestones tended to be honorific pillars mentioning emperors and did not usually convey useful information like distances to nearby towns. In Middleton in Cumbria, however, there is a stone with actual distances to Carlisle via Penrith and Sedbergh.

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Finally, Alan showed his audience some examples of the vehicles which would have used the roads, from simple farm carts to private conveyances for the wealthy to what appeared to be Roman omnibuses – larger carts (covered or uncovered), with benches for passengers.

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This was a fascinating talk which provoked a certain amount of discussion amongst the listeners, many of whom, it is to be hoped, will be inspired to make the trip to Alcester to visit the museum.