Modern roads on Roman lines

A surprising number of British trunk roads still run where Roman surveyors put them. Not because anyone preserved them deliberately, but because the Romans picked the best line first and every road builder since has agreed. These are the clearest cases, with an honest note on how closely each one really follows.

1. A5

   Follows closely

   Follows Watling Street between London and Shrewsbury

   The best known case and among the most faithful. For long stretches across Northamptonshire and Warwickshire the modern carriageway sits within a few metres of the Roman surveying, which is why it runs straight for miles at a time. Thomas Telford rebuilt the road as the London to Holyhead mail route from 1815, finishing with the Menai Bridge in 1826, and largely kept the Roman line because it was already the best one available.

2. A2

   Follows closely

   Follows Watling Street between Dover and London

   The Kentish half of Watling Street, carrying traffic from the Channel ports to London as it has since the invasion. The road still bears the name on signs through Bexleyheath and Dartford.

3. B2068

   Follows closely

   Follows Stone Street between Canterbury and Lympne

   One of the most faithful survivals anywhere in Britain. The B2068 follows Stone Street almost exactly for around twenty kilometres over the North Downs and still carries the Roman road's name, though the last stretch down to Lympne is on minor roads.

4. A15

   Follows closely

   Follows Ermine Street between Lincoln and the Humber

   One of the straightest stretches of road in the country. A 1950s dogleg takes it round RAF Scampton a few miles north of Lincoln, but beyond that it runs across flat farmland toward the Humber with barely a bend. If you want to feel what Roman surveying was like, drive this.

5. A1198

   Follows closely

   Follows Ermine Street between Royston and Godmanchester

   Signposted as Ermine Street along its length, and a more honest survival of the Roman road than the A1 that gets the credit.

6. A1

   Follows in parts

   Follows Ermine Street between London and Yorkshire, intermittently

   Commonly called a Roman road, and only partly one. The A1 descends from the medieval Great North Road, which used Ermine Street where convenient and left it where it was not. The two lines diverge repeatedly, most obviously north of Lincoln where the Roman road runs dead straight to the Humber and the A1 does not.

7. A46

   Follows closely

   Follows Fosse Way between Leicester and Lincoln

   The northern third of the Fosse Way. Between Lincoln and Ilchester the road never strays more than about ten kilometres from a straight line drawn between the two, which is the most quoted fact about Roman Britain, and this is the stretch where a modern driver can most easily feel it.

8. A429

   Follows closely

   Follows Fosse Way between Cirencester and Moreton-in-Marsh

   The Cotswold section, running fast and straight across the plateau in a way no medieval road does. Several villages along it are named Fosse or Foss for the road they sit on.

9. A37 and A367

   Follows in parts

   Follows Fosse Way between Ilchester and Bath

   The Somerset stretch, where the Roman line is picked up and dropped repeatedly by modern roads. The clearest surviving earthwork here is off the tarmac altogether, in the fields near Radstock.

10. A68

    Follows closely

    Follows Dere Street between Corbridge and the Scottish border

    The A68's sudden crests and dips across Northumberland are a direct consequence of Roman surveyors holding a straight alignment over rolling ground rather than contouring around it, and it is the most dramatic Roman road in the country to drive.

11. A38

    Follows closely

    Follows Ryknild Street between Burton-on-Trent and Derby

    North of Burton the road runs almost dead straight for a long stretch up the Trent valley, where level ground made the original surveying easy.

12. A140

    Follows in parts

    Follows Pye Road between Needham Market and Norwich

    The Roman road between Colchester and Venta Icenorum. The A140 runs north from Needham Market to Cromer and follows the Roman line along parts of that route, which is why it runs so much straighter than the Suffolk lanes either side of it.

13. A29

    Follows in parts

    Follows Stane Street between Billingshurst and Pulborough

    The A29 follows Stane Street through several long stretches of West Sussex, leaving and rejoining the Roman line more than once. The best-preserved parts of the road are the sections no modern road took, over Bignor Hill and through Eartham Wood.

14. A66

    Follows closely

    Follows Stainmore Pass road between Scotch Corner and Penrith

    Not so much a road following a Roman one as both roads answering the same question. Stainmore is the lowest crossing of the northern Pennines, so the Romans took it and so does the A66. It closes in winter storms for the reasons it always has.

15. A41

    Follows in parts

    Follows Akeman Street between Tring and Bicester

    The A41 picks up Akeman Street near Tring and follows it loosely toward Bicester. West of there the Roman road survives as green lanes rather than tarmac.

16. A69

    Same corridor

    Follows Stanegate between Corbridge and Carlisle

    The A69 shares the Tyne-Irthing corridor with the Stanegate but takes the easier valley-bottom course where the Roman road held higher ground. Note that the nearby Military Road, the B6318, is an eighteenth-century road built on top of Hadrian's Wall, not a Roman road at all.

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