page_title: Roman roads in Britannia
section_title: Archaeological evidence
hierarchical_section_title: Roman roads in Britannia / Archaeological evidence
caption_attribution_description: Part of the Tabula Peutingeriana, 1-4th century CE showing Britannia (present-day Great Britain). Facsimile edition by German cartographer Konrad Miller, 1887/1888
context_page_description: Roman roads in Britannia were initially designed for military use, created by the Roman Army during the nearly four centuries that Britannia was a province of the Roman Empire. It is estimated that about 2,000 mi of paved trunk roads were constructed and maintained throughout the province. Most of the known network was complete by 180. The primary function of the network was to allow rapid movement of troops and military supplies, but it subsequently provided vital infrastructure for commerce, trade and the transportation of goods.
  A considerable number of Roman roads remained in daily use as core trunk roads for centuries after the end of Roman rule in Britain in 410. Some routes are now part of the UK's national road network. Others have been lost or are of archeological and historical interest only.
  After the Romans departed, systematic construction of paved highways in the United Kingdom did not resume until the early 18th century. The Roman road network remained the only nationally-managed highway system within Britain until the establishment of the Ministry of Transport in the early 20th century.
context_section_description: Extant remains of Roman roads are often much degraded or contaminated by later surfacing. Well-preserved sections of structures sometimes identified as Roman roads include Wade's Causeway in Yorkshire, and at Blackpool Bridge in the Forest of Dean, although their integrity as original Roman surfaces is not certain. In many places, Roman roads were built over in the 18th century to create the turnpikes. Where they have not been built over, many sections have been ploughed over by farmers and some stripped of their stone to use on turnpike roads. However, there are numerous tracts of Roman road which have survived, albeit overgrown by vegetation, in the visible form of footpaths through woodland or common land, such as the section of Stane Street crossing Eartham Wood in the South Downs near Bignor (Sussex). This and others like it are marked on Ordnance Survey maps with dotted lines. Peddars Way in Norfolk is a Roman road converted into a long-distance footpath.
  Wayside stations have been identified in Britain. Roman roads had regularly spaced stations along their length – the Roman equivalent of motorway service areas. Roughly every 4 mi (6.4 km) – the most a horse could safely be ridden hard – there would be a mutatio (literally: "a change"), essentially stables where mounted messengers could change horses and a tavern to obtain refreshment. Cavalrymen from auxiliary mixed infantry- and cavalry- regiments (cohortes equitatae) provided most of the army's despatch-riders (dispositi). Relays of fresh riders and horses careering at full gallop could sustain an average speed of about 20 mph (32 km/h). Thus an urgent despatch from the army base at York to London – 200 mi (320 km), a journey of over a week for a normal mounted traveller – could be delivered in just 10 hours. Because mutationes were relatively small establishments, and their remains ambiguous, it is difficult to identify sites with certainty.
  Approximately every 12 mi (19 km) – a typical day's journey for an ox-drawn wagon – was a mansio (literally: "a sojourn", from which derive the English word "mansion" and French maison or "house"). This was a full-scale wayside inn, with large stables, tavern, rooms for travellers and even bath-houses in the larger establishments. Mansiones also housed detachments of troops, primarily auxiliaries, who regularly garrisoned and patrolled the roads along their whole length. These would check the identities, travel permits and cargoes of road users. Mansiones may also have housed the agents of the imperial procurator (the chief financial officer in the province) who collected the portorium, an imperial toll on goods in transit on public roads that was charged at 2 to ​2 ¹⁄₂ per cent of the value. The tax would be exacted when the goods crossed fixed toll points along the roads, which likely were located in or near mansiones. At least half a dozen sites have been positively identified as mansiones in Britain. e.g. the excavated mansio at Godmanchester (Durovigutum) on Ermine Street (near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire).
  Mutationes and mansiones were the key infrastructure for the cursus publicus (the imperial postal and transport system), which operated in many provinces of the Roman Empire. The cursus was primarily concerned with the carriage of government or military officers, government payload such as monies from tax collection and for military wages, and official despatches, but it could be made available to private individuals with special permission and for a fee. In Britain, the Vindolanda tablets, a series of letters written on wooden tablets to and by members of the garrison of Hadrian's Wall, show the operation of the cursus on the island.
  Milestones, of which 95 are recorded in Roman Inscriptions of Britain. Most of these date from the later part of the Roman period (AD250 onwards), since it was the practice to replace a road's milestones when a major repair was carried out. Milestones were usually cylindrical and 2–4 m (6 ft 7 in–13 ft 1 in) in height. Most contain only the customary dedication to the current Emperor a
caption: 19th-century reconstruction of the British section of the Peutinger Table, a medieval copy of a probably Late Roman original map. The original section showing Roman Britain (Britannia) is lost.
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