Record Details

NHER Number:25273
Type of record:Monument
Name:Possible Roman road at Low's Farm

Summary

Parts of a stone road surface have been recorded here. They were destroyed after deep ploughing of the site began in the 1940s. This road surface may have been part of a Roman road called Akeman Street. The exact route of this road is unclear.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TL 5909 9495
Map Sheet:TL59SE
Parish:HILGAY, WEST NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

1947.
Patch of metalling - 'bed of stone seven yards solid' too hard to plough up by horse, but since ploughed up by tractor, recorded by (S1). Located by D. Gurney (NAU). Suggested as line of Akeman Street but no other definite evidence produced for this; (S2) and Ordnance Survey mark a line following parish boundary to east, which (S1) rejects as a roddon. (S2) admits his line is hypothetical and basis of Ordnance Survey marking is unknown.
D. Gurney (NAU), 20 July 1988

Ordnance Survey source is (S1)which reports Akeman Street running from Coldharbour Farm (587928) which may be the Bishop of Cloyne's 'Coham Farm' (S3) to around 592950 where (S1) reports flint and says that solid metalling remained till deep ploughing about 1947. The Bishop of Cloyne also reported that the road crossed the present Ten Mile River about half a mile above the mouth of the Wissey (i.e. around 595984) which is very credible. Our AM 107 states that the basis of Ordnance Survey marking is unknown. It seems from the account above that it is based on (S1), (S2) and (S3).
Information from (S4).
R.J. Rickett (NAU), 21 February 1990.

Monument Types

  • ROAD (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

---Publication: Lysons. Magna Britannia. II, i, 45.
---Secondary File: Secondary File.
<S1>Publication: Astbury, A.K.. 1970. The Black Fens. p84-6.
<S2>Monograph: Margary, I.. 1973. Roman Roads in Britain.. Vol I, p 239.
<S3>Article in Serial: [unknown]. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. Vol 14, p 157.
<S4>Record Card: Ordnance Survey Records / Pastscape.

Related records - none

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