Derbyshire's Roman Roads

A Lidar Re-appraisal

Several years in the making - well at least 7. Other projects unfortunately restricted progress. Manchester to Melandra and Manchester to Buxton were the first followed by the Street, Buxton to Little Chester. The latter proving controversial as Lidar clearly revealed its direct coourse, not going via Wirksworth.

Lidar, both 2D and 3D virtual reality models have been used extensively in appraising the course of the roads. This technique has proved an extremely efficient way of detecting linear feature such as Roman roads. Imagery derived from this data is often able to show clearly the surviving remains of the road agger, terraces, side ditches and cuttings, often where they cannot be identified easily on the ground through traditional fieldwork. Several of these roads were researched in conjunction with Neil Buckley, whose help was much appreciated. Some of these roads have been written up by Neil and references are given where appropriate.

Road numbers are those allocated by Ivan Margary

Introduction

A challenging county to build roads through! It is not called the Peak District for nothing. Yet the Roman highway surveyors were up to the task finding fairly direct routes through valleys and over high ground. As a result Derbyshire had a comprehensive road network wilh all sites interconnected. Both Little Chester and Buxton were important road hubs, each with 5 roads. Mention must be made of Lutudarum, almost certainly Carsington, which was the centre of lead processing. Lead pigs from Lutudarum have been found all around the country.

Derbyshire's Roman Roads

The Roman Roads around Little Chester (Derby)

Little Chester to Buxton, RR71a For a long time a puzzle as to the route the Romans took. At last we have the answer.

Little Chester to Rocester, RR181, Well recorded road but with a discovery of a possible roadside fort.

Ryknield Street (North), RR18d, Little Chester to Chesterfield and on to the county boundary.

Ryknield Street (South), RR 18c, Derbyshire's straightest road?

Little Chester to Long Eaton, RR182, Almost certainly connecting Little Chester to a port on the River Trent.

The Roman Roads around Buxton

Manchester to Buxton, RR71b Starts in Greater Manchester and crosses in Derbyshire at Disley.

Buxton to Melandra, RR714 Just the northern section that is not fixed. We show a new option..

Buxton to Brough, Batham Gate RR710a Well recorded road despite all the quuarrying that has taken place.l

Buxton to Leek & Blythe Bridge, RR713 Long suspected Roman road towards Leek and we extend it to Blythe Bridge.

Other Roman Roads

Arbor Low to Rocester, RR716x Recently dicovered road branching off the Street and heading to Rocester.

Rocester to Carsington Route of RR716x suggests there was probably a Roman road to Carsington.

Leicester to Rocester, RR573 Starts in Leicestershire passes into, then out of and back into Derbyshire and ends up in Staffordshire!

Melandra to Brough, RR711 Huge complications over this road with the Doctor's Gate route falling out of favour.

Possible Roman Roads

Longcliffe to Brough (Portway) An old route but with very little positive evidence that it could be Roman..

Acknowledgements

My thanks ar due to Neil Buckley for his help with several of these roads. Thanks are also due to Mike Aerts for developing his bespoke "MAGIC" Lidar software that turns numbers into 3D virtual reality models

Raw (ascii) Lidar is copyright DEFRA/The Environment Agency. The processed Lidar data shown here is copyright David Ratledge. Having said that, you are welcome to use any of the Lidar images providing a source reference is given.

Mapping used is generally Ordnance Survey Opendata.

References:

Below are general references. Specific ones pertaining to a particular road are included on the appropriate web page.

Codrignton, Roman Roads in Britain, 1903/1918. (Bill Thayer's online version).

I.D. Margary, Roman Roads in Britain, 1957. Way out of date but still the first "go to" source book. The Margary road numbers used here are from this book.

Peter Wroe, ROMAN ROADS IN THE PEAK DISTRICT, 1984.

Contact:

To contact David Ratledge regarding the Derbyshire web pages, please email me.

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