Roman roads in Northamptonshire
Watling Street runs diagonally across Northamptonshire, and the stretch of the A5 that follows it through the county is the clearest surviving demonstration of Roman surveying in England: mile after mile of straight road across gently rolling ground. Lactodorum at Towcester was the posting station on it, and Bannaventa near Norton another. The M1 was built to relieve this road, not to replace it.
- Mapped segments
- 26
- Surveyed length
- 150 km
- Named roads
- 1
Measured from the Itiner-e survey within the modern county boundary, which for Yorkshire, Cheshire and the other counties broken up in 1974 means the traditional area reassembled from its present-day parts. The survey maps far more road than it attributes to a named route, so the segment count counts everything, and the named roads below are only those with a history recorded here.
Where to see it
The A5 through the county is Watling Street to drive, mile after mile of it. Towcester keeps the line of the Roman town in its street plan, and the villa at Piddington, excavated over decades by a local society, has a small museum in the village.
Named roads through Northamptonshire
Watling Street
Rutupiae to Viroconium