A Roman Road Under South East London

A ROMAN ROAD UNDER SOUTH EAST LONDON

John Acworth

After the Romans landed in AD 43, a road was built for fast access between the landing places in Kent such as Richborough and a crossing on the River Thames in the London area. There is a probability that they used an existing track across north slopes of the North Downs which passed a few iron-age hillforts on the way towards the interior of the land. The road now called Watling Street was born.

According to the Antonine Itinerary, a guide for officials and tax gatherers for moving around the Roman province, places on the route from London to the Kent Coast were listed as several Roman miles apart, including Noviomago, Vagniacae, Durobrivae and Durovernum. The latter two developed into the large towns of Rochester and Canterbury. The history of the first two is a little more complicated.

Much more is known of the London to Lewes Roman Road especially when it leaves the built up area of London and runs over the Downs away from the lowlands and river valleys. Here the road has a tendency to not go straight over the top of steep hills but to slowly work its way at an angle to the slope. The Roman Army had to haul wagons of supplies and men up the easiest slope possible on firm ground.

Supposedly the line of Watling Street, or whatever the Romans called it, as the Antonine Itinerary did not name the road, runs south east from the gates of Roman Southwark towards the River Ravensbourne, up over Shooters Hill, along the crest of the open Bexley Heath, across the River Cray, straight on to the River Darent, across the river towards Vagniacae (Springhead) and Durobrivae (Rochester).

Do we know where it actually lies under the modern suburbs, unfortunately not....

It is surmised to be under the main road. The main road, supposedly Roman has bends. Look at the street lights on a clear night. The modern road just is not straight. Therefore it is not Roman and it is a modern assumption that it follows the old road. But look at any old maps for the old road.

Where is the road? What sort of road are we looking for, how wide is it? How thick is it, has it been found anywhere?

RECENT DISCOVERIES.

In 1977 at a site in Silvester Street off the northern end of Great Dover Street the southern edge of the Roman road that ran from the Southwark crossing point was found some 12m wide and 0.5m thick.

In the summer of 1990 at a position of TQ 343 779, near the Canal bridge on the Old Kent Road, the Roman Road was found running parallel with the Old Kent Road some 30 metres to the south. There were two distinct layers of this metalled road, the original lower one being 5m wide and 0.2 m thick under a 14m wide, 0.25m thick layer composed mainly of pebbles with shell, brick, tile and pottery intrusions. The road was flanked by a ditch each side, the southern one being 3.5m wide.

Just south of the newly found road, it was supposed that a South Downs Lewes bound road branched off the main road roughly on the line of the present Asylum Road heading for the low point between Nunhead and Telegraph Hill then heading for Blythe Hill and on to form the Kent - Surrey boundary further south. This road has been found usually 5m wide in the various places that it has been sectioned.

In the early 90's, the signal station site on the south side of the top of Shooters Hill, at TQ 438 763, was being excavated to put up a new building in the southern part of the site. The southern edge of the road and ditch were found.

WHERE IS THE ROAD TO ROCHESTER.

Where does the main road go from its junction with the Lewes Road. It is south of here that the ground begins to rise away from the river marshes and forms a slight gradient before rising to the hills to the south. It is conceivable that on this stretch of dry land could have been an old track-way crossing few streams until it met the River Thames again at Battersea to the west and the River Ravensbourne to the East. Old track-ways may have been modernised by the Roman road builders.

The Roman Road, according to the modern theory created a causeway between islands south of the River Thames and then used these old track-ways towards the break of the hills to the south where it crossed the River Ravensbourne before heading for Shooters Hill, Swanscombe Hill, the River Medway and Canterbury.

The crossing of the River Thames was always thought to be at Southwark; there is the medieval 'Watling Street' in the City of London. A study of the road pattern found in Southwark suggests another river crossing just upriver from Westminster near where there used to be a Stangate on the river. St Thomas’s Hospital is now on the site. The distance from Canterbury, Ordnance Survey grid reference TR 149 577 to Westminster (east side of bridge) TQ 306 795 is 87 km at 14.64 degrees N of W on Grid North.

The top of Shooters Hill is TQ 438 765 and for the River Medway crossing at the same position at the present bridge is TQ 741 689. How do these two important points on the route from Canterbury compare against this 14.64 degrees N of W from Grid North. The Medway Bridge TQ 738 684 is 14.59 degrees N of W from Canterbury. Shooters Hill top TQ 438 765 is 14.73 degrees N of W from Canterbury.

Shooters Hill is a convenient place from which the road can be followed.

It would be difficult, even today, to have four points on a road at that distance of 87km so aligned. The road plan was excellent. Unfortunately the topography of the land altered it. Which way does it go from the top of Shooters Hill westwards as the road reaches the plateau of Blackheath Common.

To plot the course of the road across Blackheath we must ignore the modern road as this is a diversion brought about by the in-parking of Greenwich Park by the Duke of Gloucester in 1433. By 1769 this modern road on the Andrews, Drury and Herbert's map of Kent, is shown going across the Heath to go towards the south western corner of Greenwich Park. On this same map the line of the Roman Road heads into the side of the park by Maze Hill and disappears.

The plateau of Blackheath at just under 50m above sea level has three dry valleys running into it on the north western edge. The western edge of the plateau finishes at an area known as 'the point' which commands a view in all directions except behind it on the heights. As far as I know from searches in local libraries it has never been researched as a possible defended site. This overlooks the first valley to the north now heavily built up. Croom’s Hill divides that valley from the next valley, the westerly one in the park through which all today's traffic descends to Greenwich Village. Separating the two valleys in the park is the mound on which the Observatory historical buildings stand, one of London's celebrated views.

The dry valley to the east of this is the one that concerns us in our search for the road as we now have to take a bird’s eye view of this road from the top of Shooters Hill in the direction of Westminster Bridge. From the top of the plateau this valley has a very easy descent to the river terrace below and vice versa on the ascent.

At the edge of the plateau at the top of the valley at TQ 393 774 were found tessellated floors and walls of a building lying next but on the southern side of the projected line of the road which would have taken the less steep eastern side of the valley. Perhaps this is a mansio for weary travellers from Kent before the descent onto the broad London river plain. This was shown on Channel 4 Time Team.

From Shooters Hill to Westminster as a straight road the engineers would have had a problem as there are so many hindrances between these two points. The straight road would have crossed the River Ravensbourne at its confluence with the River Thames at the tidal Deptford Creek. Both rivers are deep here. It would have been logical to cross the river at a ford to the south at what is now Deptford - deep ford - where the ground rises quickly on both sides. To go from the slope in the east of Greenwich Park to the ford at Deptford it is not hard to imagine that the engineers on the road would have crossed the dry valley near the bottom and swung round what is now Observatory Hill until the Roman road builders had lined up on the deep ford and then crossed the slope of the hill going gently down to the ford. Many Roman roads are remembered these days by the words "Strat", "straete" in the local roads, and Straightsmouth in Greenwich has these Roman connotations and it is on the casual slope line from down the hill to the ford at Deptford.

From the ford at Deptford the obvious route was to make for the direction of the Westminster ford and, as said before, probably utilised an old track-way over the marshes which was bound to have used the higher ground.

One thing often said about the Roman way of life was their inability to innovate but excellent at improving what there was, for their own benefit. So it would be true to their way of life to improve an existing track-way where it helped to formulate their master road plan.

From Deptford to the junction of the Lewes Road is 2.5 km. For the first 0.7 km the present Broadway to New Cross Station follows exactly on that line. South of the road opposite Deptford High Street has been found a tessellated floor at TQ 372 769. West of New Cross Station the present road follows the contours whilst the Roman road drops down towards the marshes and where it was found south of the Old Kent Road by the Old Surrey Canal heading straight for the ford at Westminster.

An 1843 map of the Environments of London, engraved by B. R. Davies, shows a field boundary north of the Old Kent Road at the bottom edge of the map. Is this a relic of the Roman Road, as the direction to the south east runs straight towards Deptford Bridge. The western end of this boundary ends just north of the branch roads to Lewes and is today visible as the southern boundary of the gasworks at Devon Street. Should we not be looking at a junction in Devon Street where the road would then follow the course it was found on, a few hundred metres to the north-west .

If the road was then heading for the Westminster ford, it would have crossed the Chichester bound road from Southwark somewhere under the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre near the railway viaduct. Was there a branch road to Southwark over the marshy surrounded islets of this area bound for London Bridge?

NOVIOMAGO - A ROMAN WAYSIDE VILLAGE.

Noviomago was a hamlet on Watling Street contained in the Antonine Itinerary II which gives the following distances from London (Londinio) to Rochester (Durobrovis).

Londinio - Noviomago X (10 Roman Miles).

Noviomago - Vagniacis XVIIII (19 Roman Miles).

Vagniacis - Durobrovis VIIII ( 9 Roman Miles).

Total 38 Roman Miles.

The Antonine Itinerary III gives the distance as 28 Roman Miles, a difference of 10. Where is this 10 miles difference. It has always been assumed by some that Crayford is Noviomago, but the distances do not tally.

A Roman mile was 1618 English Yards or 0.919 English miles and 28 Roman miles equals 25.75 English miles approximately. Borough to the Medway is about 27 English miles, if, as seems likely, distances are measured from gate to gate and not centre to centre, the difference would be equal to two villages. Is it possible to find the mistake and Noviomago.

Firstly, the position of Vagniacis is known and has been excavated at Springhead, south west of Gravesend. More has been found since the A2 was widened since 2005. The village here is 8.5 English miles from Rochester at the Medway Bridge and 19 from Borough High Street.

Secondly, the assumption that Noviomago is Crayford does not tally with the distances left, as Crayford is 12.5 English miles (13.5 Roman) from the southern part of Borough High Street. There may have been a mistake in the copying of the document. It should only read 9 Roman Miles, not 19.

In recent years there have been Roman Cremation Urns found around the eastern end of Welling High Street, and according to the archives of the National Monuments Record Office, these are listed with grid references

4672 7576 Mid 2C grey ware.

4690 7575 Hard grey ware.

470 759 2C ware.

These positions relate to the east end of Welling High Street. In 1989 a further 5 Roman cremation burial urns were found at TQ 4702 7575 when land of the Guy, Earl of Warwick Public House was sold off for housing. In 2009 Roman remains have been found under the demolished Embassy Court on Welling High Street. Is this the proof that Noviomago was at Welling.

I first put forward the this suggestion back in 1983 at a well attended Saturday School that David Weekes organised but it was taken by others and published as their own work some years later. Welling High Street is 10 Roman miles from Borough High Street and 9 miles from Springhead. There is a spring near the village from which the settlement took its name. There were only a few buildings here until the 1900's. Also Welling High Street has a slight double bend in the lie of the road which may indicate old boundaries and maybe a Romano British village.

Nearby to the north-west is the hamlet of East Wickham, which like its namesake of West Wickham, lies near to a Roman Road. This name could be a corruption of the latin word 'vicus' for settlement, indicating a native British village. If Noviomago is Welling, this may show that the Roman village was abandoned, maybe because of the plagues around in the later part of the Roman occupation, as a nearby settlement of Saxons was created over the vacant land.

But where exactly would a Roman town be. Old maps show the line of Gipsy Road as the Bexley - East Wickham Parish Boundary and an 814 AD grant of the land of Bexley from the Mercian King Cenwulf to the Archbishop of Canterbury calls this boundary a "straete", a name given to Roman roads on Saxon documents which also names Watling Street as "Casincgstraete".

Therefore, somewhere between the higher land where Gipsy Road and Casincgstraete meet and Welling High Street there may well be a Roman village or town once called Noviomago or “New Market”. Just to the south is the little river that rises as a spring near Penpool Lane where in the 19^th Century there used to be watercress beds. The word Pen is ancient and means the end of a ridge as in Penhill on the other side of Danson Park

SHOOTERS HILL TO BEXLEY HEATH.

If you stand on the island in the middle of the junction at Welling Corner and look towards Shooters Hill, Bellegrove Road runs straight towards the bottom of the hill and then bends to the right, to the north as it ascends to avoid the ridge that runs to the top of the hill from the lower slopes on the eastern side. To the north of the present road the ground rises quite steeply very quickly. The road on this evidence must therefore follow accepted Roman road building practice and ascend Shooters Hill to the southern side of the present road from further back going probably up the ridge.

In March 1995 at the Aerial Site on the southern side of the top of the hill the southern edge of the road and the associated ditch was found at a position which is the southern edge, or brow of the top of Shooters Hill directly in line with the ridge to the east.

Is the road visible in the Oxleas Wood. There is a ditch and embankment running parallel with the present road on the eastern edge on the ridge as it ascends the hill. This track, the pre toll road, runs up the ridge with a thick wood either side. Dick Turpin country. There is a suggestion of lack of trees on the ridge rising westwards around this old road. It would seem logical to a Roman road builder to follow the ridge up over the hill as there are gradient problems either side. See Google Earth for the line of the gap in the trees. To the west the road heads straight for just north of the south eastern corner of Greenwich Park.

From the bottom of Shooters Hill eastwards the road is assumed to run straight through Welling where it may have entered the area of the village after passing through the cemetery where cremations have been found on either side of the road. East of Welling the course of the road has never been found and some historians have placed it passing through Danson Park but this would have failed the prime directive - keep dry, keep straight, keep level. One of the other main requirements is to keep to the top of the rise. East of Welling is an area of springs and what may have been marsh as in the Boundaries of Bexley Saxon Charter of 814 AD.

EAST ANDLANG STRAETE ON SCOFFOCCES SAE.

THANON NORTH ANDLANG STRAETE OTH LYTLANLEA.

EAST ALONG STREET TO 'SCOFFOCCES' MARSH.

THEN NORTH ALONG STREET TO LITTLE HEATH.

East along the Roman road to 'Scoffocces' marsh (as in Battersea, Chelsea, Bermondsey), often flooded one suspects, and then north along what is now Gipsy Road, but was until quite recently the parish boundary between East Wickham and Bexley (Also the LCC and Kent) to the location of Little Heath.

Obviously by 814 AD the road was still visible and with another Roman road formed a boundary that lasted for 1500 years after the Roman armies left. But what was 'Scoffocces'. A look at a contour map clearly shows an isolated hill to the south west of the junction of Gipsy Road and the main highway, on which Danson House now stands. Was Scoffocces a Roman villa site built on the northern slopes of this hill overlooking a marshy lake and springs with the Roman Road beyond it. The flat area to the north of the stables restaurant is suggestive of such a site. Present contours also may suggest that the Roman road from Welling headed east, straight for the top of the Heath at the southern junction side of Mayplace Road and Erith Road in Bexleyheath.

This road would have avoided Scoffocces marsh and the whole stretch of road would have been visible from Shooters Hill to Barnehurst from the top of the hill. What evidence do I have of the site of this Roman road. With all the road-making efforts of the last century it would be thought that a well made road below the surface would have shown on urban development. Road works undertaken on the eastern end of the Broadway, Bexleyheath at the Gravel Hill Junction, did not show any sign of the Roman road in the early 1990s.

Both sides of the eastern end of the Broadway were stripped back in 1990 to the reddish clayey Woolwich gravel and a trench dug across the road when the new hotel and garage were built. No Roman road was visible.

The name, Broadway, has its own connotations. Was the ground so used in medieval times that when parts became to well used and rutted the tracks widened out to attain the less rutted fairway. It was heath land anyway and not suitable for farming and the tracks became a wide route across the wide open heath.

The Tithe map for the parish of Bexley shows an odd angled land property north of the road by Crook Log. It seems to be at variance with the other angles of the other properties, only just slightly south of east.

Recently published reprints of the Ordnance Survey 1st Edition of the area at 25 inches to the mile show that where there are east-west property boundaries, they are not aligned with the Broadway, this is also the same on the Tithe map.

Between Crook Log and Bexleyheath Market Place the Broadway is 15° S of E against 5° S of E for the alignment of the properties to the north. The top of Bexleyheath, just to the north of the Market Place is 196 feet (<60m) and east of this point the boundaries are due east-west. So, from the east end of Welling High Street, following the road 5° SofE to Bexleyheath then continuing due east to the top of the valley at Marten's Grove could be the track of the old Roman Road.

A route from Welling to the top of the heath would be on an alignment that included Queen Street and North Street, Bexleyheath; the first roads to be built on the newly enclosed common in the 1820's. Do they lie over the Roman Road.

BEXLEYHEATH TO CRAYFORD.

From the top of the heath to the River Cray there were a few problems to solve. The modern Broadway at Bexleyheath becomes Watling Street on its way down to Crayford. For hundreds of years this route to the river skirted to the south of a gravel and sandy triangular ridge before turning and climbing up to the top of the hill to St. Paulinus Church via Old Street and then straight down the High Street to meet the road to Bexley via Bexley Lane and Bourne Road along the river terrace before crossing at the ford over the River Cray.

When the road was turnpiked the straight stretch from Watling Street to the ford was built. It is not likely to have been the Roman Road as the bottom part of the road was over the flood plain between the village and the river.

There is evidence in the landscape and on the ground, and also in the first large scale maps.

In the present Martins Grove, a park originally laid out around a large house overlooking a valley facing east, there is a track-way on the northern edge of the valley, very straight, some 10 metres wide, heading directly for the hill on which St. Paulinus Church is situated.

A projection continuing the line across the heath and almost due east following the boundary alignments meets the grounds of Marten's Grove in the extreme north-west side on the top of the rise at the western end of this track-way. It also avoids the spring and steep slopes nearby.

The 1860 First Edition of the large scale Ordnance Survey for Crayford shows a boundary line on an alignment of 23° S of E running from the east end of this trackway directly towards the top of Crayford High Street, just to the south of St Paulinus Churchyard. Is this the Romano Saxon Caesincgstraete descending to St. Paulinus Church hill, (which itself may have ancient pre-Christian religious connections), again using the well drained top of the heath land then dropping down on a slant to the hill and turning at right angles to the river to avoid the flood plain on the north western side which the present main road passes through.

Once over the River Cray the road headed straight for the River Darent ford!!

Or did it. Why go over West Hill, Dartford when it is easier going round it on the level. There is an easy way to spot a Roman Road which does not seem to appear on the route from Westminster to Dartford - the prefix "Stan" which almost always lies on or next to a Roman Road.

There is one, however, the Stanham River and Stanham Farm, now contained within the old railway triangle between Crayford and Dartford Stations. It is doubtful whether the road would be found here as the modern railway track goes over part of the same route. But you never know - where there is a track do what the Romans did - use it. But there is another theory.

Here at Stanham River, the river has never been altered, the valley bottom is much wider here and sheltered and right by the Roman Road. Could there have been a sheltered Roman harbour halfway between Londinium and the estuary below the Crayford ridge, which in itself is an excellent defensive position where the battle of 457 AD could have been fought.

There is history waiting beneath our feet if we only know where to look for it.

John Acworth, v4 updated 2009

Embassy Court in Welling, a row of local shops around a small car park, on the bend in Welling High Street was demolished in 2010 -11 to be turned into a large Tesco Store to replace the small local Tesco on one side of Embassy Court. It was no surprise to me, that the archaeologists found Roman buildings when they dug the foundations. This confirms that Welling is the Roman Noviomago. V5 updated 2011