The Roman Road from Radwinter to Great Dunmow

Margary Number: 300

Distance: 10 miles

A road perhaps best explained by being a joint route from the Roman settlements/towns of Great Chesterford and Wixoe to that at Great Dunmow. Another typically direct route.

Historic Counties: Essex

Current Counties: Essex

HER: Essex

Lidar Image - Full Route

Sensible route keeping out of the river valleys and passing through Thaxted and the aptly named Monk Street. Only approaching Great Dunmow does the road abandon the long alignment from Radwinter.

Lidar Image and Route Map 1

The route is very clear in the Lidar imagery all the way to Thaxted.

Roman Road - South of Radwinter

The Roman line is mostly overlaid by the modern lane aptly named "Roman Road". Today it is quite narrow and only its straightness gives away its Roman origin.

Lidar Image and Route Map 2

Across Thaxted I have had to interpolate but this is almost certainly the route the road would have followed. There is a slight dog-leg just before Monk Street.

Dunmow Road - South of Thaxted

One of the most obvious of Roman roads! This is about half a mile south of Thaxted on the B184 looking south..

Lidar Image and Route Map 3

Again sufficient clues to confirm the route including a cutting just north of Little Cambridge.

Lidar Image and Route Map 4

Just north of the River Chelmer there appears to be a fine surviving length of agger.

Great Dunmow - High Street

The Roman line goes straight on here to the junction with Stane Street - roughly in the direction of the obelisk.

Lidar Image - Great Dunmow Roman Settlement

The Roman settlement area appears to have been mainly to the west of the road junction. It is likely that Stane Street predated the other later roads which then avoided the already settled area.

The Settlement area is shaded in yellow and is taken from Wickenden although the road to London I have shown in a different location based on Lidar and old mapping..

Ref: Excavations at Great Dunmow, Essex: a Romano-British small town in the Trinovantian Civitas, N.P. Wickenden, EAA 41 (1988)

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Last update: July 2020

© David Ratledge