Roman roads in Yorkshire
Yorkshire was the military heart of northern Britain. Eboracum at York began as a legionary fortress in AD 71, became the capital of Britannia Inferior when the province was divided, and was where both Septimius Severus and Constantius Chlorus died — Constantine was proclaimed emperor in the city on the second occasion. Ermine Street came north to it and Dere Street ran on from it toward the frontier, so almost every Roman road in the county is oriented on York. Westward, the Stainmore road carried traffic over the Pennines to Cumbria.
- Mapped segments
- 136
- Surveyed length
- 1,050 km
- Named roads
- 4
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
York keeps the multangular tower of the legionary fortress in the Museum Gardens and a Roman column standing opposite the Minster, whose undercroft shows the fortress principia beneath it. Aldborough has mosaics in situ, and the Roman road over Blackstone Edge above Littleborough, paved and grooved down its centre, is the most argued-over stretch of Roman paving in the country.
Named roads through Yorkshire
Ermine Street
Londinium to Eboracum
Dere Street
Eboracum to Inveresk
Stainmore Pass road
Cataractonium to Brocavum
Ryknild Street
Bourton-on-the-Water to Templeborough