Stane Street
Londinium to Noviomagus Reginorum
The route
Stane Street ran south-west from Londinium to Noviomagus Reginorum at Chichester. It left London at the southern bridgehead in Southwark and headed for Ewell, then crossed the Mole near Dorking and climbed the chalk scarp of the North Downs close to Box Hill.
Beyond the Downs it ran through the heavy clay of the Sussex Weald, passed the posting station at Alfoldean, crossed the Arun, and climbed the South Downs at Bignor before dropping into the coastal plain and the civitas capital of the Regni.
The surveying is the boldest in Britain. The first stretch out of London is aligned almost exactly on the centre of Chichester, ninety kilometres away and entirely out of sight beyond two ranges of hills.
The surveyed line
- Mapped length
- 93 km
- Mapped segments
- 8
- 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
The A29 through Sussex follows long sections, particularly between Billingshurst and Pulborough. In Surrey the A24 shadows the line near Dorking. Within London the road is largely built over, though Kennington Park Road and Clapham Road sit on it.
Much of the middle of the route was never adopted by a modern road at all, which is why so much of it survives as footpath and bridleway across the Weald and the Downs.
See also: which modern roads follow Roman lines, and how closely.
Where to see it
Bignor Roman Villa sits just north of the South Downs beside the road, and its mosaics are among the finest in Britain. The climb of Bignor Hill immediately above it carries a well-preserved stretch of the road, now a chalk track through open downland.
The section through Eartham Wood, managed by Forestry England, has an excavated agger with the original flint metalling exposed and interpreted.
Common questions
Is the A29 a Roman road?
In parts. The A29 through West Sussex follows Stane Street along several long stretches, though the modern road leaves and rejoins the Roman line more than once.
Why is it called Stane Street?
Stane is simply the Old English word for stone. To Anglo-Saxon travellers a metalled Roman road was remarkable enough in a landscape of mud tracks that the surface became the name.
Can you walk Stane Street?
Yes. Substantial sections across the South Downs, particularly over Bignor Hill and through Eartham Wood, are public rights of way, and the National Trust and Forestry England maintain access to several of the best preserved stretches.