Peddars Way
South-west Norfolk to Holme-next-the-Sea
The route
Peddars Way ran from a junction with the Icknield Way in south-west Norfolk, near Knettishall Heath, north-west across the county to the coast at Holme-next-the-Sea. It holds a remarkably consistent alignment for about seventy kilometres over gently rolling chalk and sand.
Its purpose is generally read as military. The road was laid out in the years after the Boudican revolt of AD 60 and 61, cutting directly through the territory of the defeated Iceni, and it may have continued by ferry across the Wash to the Lincolnshire shore.
The surveyed line
The Itiner-e survey maps Roman roads across this part of the empire, but attributes no segment to Peddars Way by name, so there is no measured line to draw here. The road is well attested by archaeology and by the modern roads that still follow it.
The road today
Almost none of it. Peddars Way is unusual among major Roman roads in Britain in having been left alone: no modern trunk road took it up, and long stretches were never even metalled. A few short sections are minor lanes; the rest is track and footpath.
See also: which modern roads follow Roman lines, and how closely.
Where to see it
The whole route is a National Trail, the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path. It is one of the easiest long Roman roads in Britain to walk in full, taking three or four days, sandy underfoot and almost level throughout.
The best single stretch is across the heath and forest between Castle Acre and Fring, where the road runs arrow-straight through open country with no modern intrusion at all.
Common questions
Can you walk the whole of Peddars Way?
Yes. It is a designated National Trail running about seventy kilometres from Knettishall Heath to Holme-next-the-Sea, and it is among the best preserved Roman roads in Britain to walk from end to end.
Why was Peddars Way built?
The usual reading is that Rome built it to control the Iceni after Boudica's revolt was crushed in AD 61: it drives straight through their heartland, which is how an army secures hostile territory rather than how a trade route follows demand. Parts of the line may follow an older trackway the Romans remade rather than laid out from nothing.