Fosse Way
Isca Dumnoniorum to Lindum
The route
The Fosse Way ran from Isca Dumnoniorum at Exeter north-east across the whole width of southern Britain. It passed Lindinis at Ilchester, skirted Aquae Sulis at Bath, and reached Corinium Dobunnorum at Cirencester, the second largest town in the province.
From Cirencester it ran on through the Cotswolds past Moreton-in-Marsh to Venonis at High Cross, where it crossed Watling Street. It continued through Ratae Corieltauvorum at Leicester and past Newark to finish at Lindum at Lincoln.
Its straightness is the thing most often remarked on. Between Lincoln and Ilchester, a stretch of some two hundred and ninety kilometres, the road never strays more than about ten kilometres from a straight line drawn between those two points. The full route to Exeter is nearer three hundred and seventy.
The surveyed line
- Mapped length
- 370 km
- Mapped segments
- 34
- Line certainty
- Conjectured
Measured across every Itiner-e segment attributed to this road. A conjectured stretch is one whose course is inferred from evidence either side of it; that covers 99% of the mapped length here. This describes how precisely the line is known, not whether the road existed.
The road today
No single modern road carries the whole Fosse Way, which is part of its charm. The A37 and A367 follow it in Somerset, the A429 through the Cotswolds between Cirencester and Moreton-in-Marsh, and the A46 north of Leicester toward Newark and Lincoln.
Between those stretches the road survives as unclassified lanes, farm tracks and field boundaries. The A429 is the section most drivers notice: it runs straight and fast across the Cotswold plateau in a way that no medieval road ever does.
See also: which modern roads follow Roman lines, and how closely.
Where to see it
The Cotswold stretch of the A429 is the easiest place to appreciate it from a car. For walking, the section across the fields near Radstock in Somerset preserves a clear agger, the raised embankment on which the road was built.
Corinium at Cirencester has the Corinium Museum, whose mosaic collection is among the best in Britain, and the town's street grid still reflects the Roman one.
Common questions
Is the A46 the Fosse Way?
Along parts of its length, yes. The A46 between Leicester and Lincoln follows the Fosse Way closely. Further south the Roman line is carried by the A429 through the Cotswolds and the A37 and A367 in Somerset.
Was the Fosse Way a Roman frontier?
Probably, for a short time. In the years immediately after the invasion of AD 43 it appears to have marked the western limit of Roman control, with forts strung along it. Later governors pushed the frontier into Wales and the north, and the road became an internal trunk route.
Why is it called the Fosse Way?
From the Latin fossa, meaning ditch. A defensive ditch is thought to have run alongside the road, at least along the stretch where it served as a frontier.