King Street (Roman road)
Encyclopedia
King Street is the name of a modern road on the line of a Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...

 (. It runs on a straight course in eastern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, between the City of Peterborough and South Kesteven
South Kesteven
South Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. It covers Grantham, Stamford, Bourne and Market Deeping.-History:...

 in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

. This English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 name has long been applied to the part which is still in use and which lies between Ailsworth Heath , in the south and Kate's Bridge , in the north. The old road continued to Bourne
Bourne, Lincolnshire
Bourne is a market town and civil parish on the western edge of the Fens, in the District of South Kesteven in southern Lincolnshire, England.-The town:...

 thence north-westwards to join Ermine Street
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London to Lincoln and York . The Old English name was 'Earninga Straete' , named after a tribe called the Earningas, who inhabited a district later known as Armingford Hundred, around Arrington, Cambridgeshire and Royston,...

 south of Ancaster
Ancaster Roman Town
Ancaster Roman Town was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Its name in Latin is unknown, although it is sometimes identified with Causennis . Today it is known as Ancaster, located in the English county of Lincolnshire.-Town development:The Romans built a fort over an Iron Age...

 . This part of Ermine Street is called High Dike. In the south, King Street joined Ermine Street close to the River Nene
River Nene
The River Nene is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in the county of Northamptonshire. The tidal river forms the border between Cambridgeshire and Norfolk for about . It is the tenth longest river in the United Kingdom, and is navigable for from Northampton to The...

, north of Durobrivae. The whole is I.D. Margary's Roman road number 26. (Margary pp.232-234)

The Roman road's route

Archaeological work has revealed more of its length than is in use nowadays. Its course is regarded as having run from the boundary between Ailsworth and Castor, at the north-west corner of Normangate Field, just north of the River Nene
River Nene
The River Nene is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in the county of Northamptonshire. The tidal river forms the border between Cambridgeshire and Norfolk for about . It is the tenth longest river in the United Kingdom, and is navigable for from Northampton to The...

 (TL113980)). This is where it left the Roman Ermine Street
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London to Lincoln and York . The Old English name was 'Earninga Straete' , named after a tribe called the Earningas, who inhabited a district later known as Armingford Hundred, around Arrington, Cambridgeshire and Royston,...

, north-west of Durobrivae in what was by the end of the 2nd century, an extensive industrial region producing tile
Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...

s, metalwork and particularly, pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

.

To the south of this point, Ermine Street runs along the edge of The Fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....

; but to the north, lies further inland. King Street continued the course nearer the fen edge. While Ermine Street crossed the Welland
River Welland
The River Welland is a river in the east of England, some long. It rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke. For much of its length it forms the county boundary between...

 near the natural ford at Stamford
Stamford, Lincolnshire
Stamford is a town and civil parish within the South Kesteven district of the county of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately to the north of London, on the east side of the A1 road to York and Edinburgh and on the River Welland...

 , King Street crosses at Lolham Bridges , which required much more engineering.

At Kate's Bridge, the road crossed the River Glen
River Glen, Lincolnshire
The River Glen is a river in Lincolnshire, England with a short stretch passing through Rutland near Essendine.The river's name appears to derive from a Brythonic Celtic language but there is a strong early English connection.-Naming:...

. Until the 1820s the road still used the same crossing point despite the river's having moved from it at some time, probably well over a thousand years before. At Park Wood, the road appears to have come close to the Car Dyke
Car Dyke
The Car Dyke was, and to large extent still is, an eighty-five mile long ditch which runs along the western edge of the Fens in eastern England. It is generally accepted as being of Roman age and, for many centuries, to have been taken as marking the western edge of the Fens...

 but this is not well supported by evidence. From near Thurlby crossroads, the Roman line headed straight for the point at which Bourne Abbey
Bourne Abbey
Bourne Abbey and the Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a scheduled Grade I church in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. The building remains in parochial use, despite the 16th century Dissolution, as the nave was used by the parish, probably from the time of the foundation of the abbey in...

 was later built on it.

In this length, there are points where the road seems to show in the modern landscape - for example, here. In the south, the modern road lies on the Roman one which continued through Elsea Wood and along the field boundary to its north. The Car Dyke lies to the east and the boundary between Elsea wood and Math Wood seems to lie along the edge of the 2nd century road verge, which was cleared for security. The carriageway, the Car Dyke and the Math Wood boundary are all parallel here. When allowance is made for the now-missing outer works of the Car Dyke, the carriageway lies half way between the other two features.

North of Bourne, little of the road is still in use but it has left its mark in the form of property boundaries and soil marks -
for example. This section is sometimes called the 'Long Hollow Road' because some of it runs along the bottom of the Long Hollow, a broad, shallow valley which is the upper part of the basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 of the River East Glen
River Glen, Lincolnshire
The River Glen is a river in Lincolnshire, England with a short stretch passing through Rutland near Essendine.The river's name appears to derive from a Brythonic Celtic language but there is a strong early English connection.-Naming:...

. .

From Bourne Abbey, it passed along Meadowgate, then by Cawthorpe to Clipseygap Lane, Hanthorpe
Morton and Hanthorpe
Morton and Hanthorpe is a civil parish, formerly known as Morton by Bourne in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. There are other villages and hamlets in the county with the name of Morton. There are 921 households in Morton and 74 in Hanthorpe.Morton Grade I listed Anglican...

 and the Roman town at Stainfield
Stainfield
Stainfield is a village and civil parish about east of the city of Lincoln, in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.-St Andrews Church:...

. On the boulder clay
Till
thumb|right|Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material , and this characteristic, known as matrix support, is diagnostic of till....

 ridge, it forms boundaries of woods before, in the East Glen valley, its line is picked up by a minor road at Hanby
Hanby
Hanby may refer to:*Benjamin Hanby, American composer*Hanbi, a mythological god of evil*Hanby, Lincolnshire, A hamlet on the line of the Roman Road King Street....

. It passed through the small Roman town at Sapperton and up the Long Hollow to Ropsley Heath whence it is more or less closely followed by a modern road to its junction with Ermine Street, a kilometre south of the Roman town of Ancaster
Ancaster, Lincolnshire
Ancaster is a village in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, on the site of the Roman town of "Causennae"Ancaster Hall at The University of Nottingham is named after the parish and the, now extinct, title of the Earl of Ancaster....

. The road can be seen as a soil mark in The Long Hollow, just right of centre in this aerial photograph.

The Roman road's economic significance

Ermine Street was one of the strategic roads built in the 1st century, early in the period of the Roman occupation of Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...

. The features of King Street are consistent with its having formed part of a development of the region along with the Car Dyke, in the reign of Hadrian (117-138). It may well have been a result of his visit to Britannia in 122; fairly early in his reign and just after he had spent time sorting out the Limes between the Rhine and the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

.

From Bourne, the tidal
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

 waterway
Waterway
A waterway is any navigable body of water. Waterways can include rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and canals. In order for a waterway to be navigable, it must meet several criteria:...

 known to archaeologists as the Bourne-Morton Canal
Bourne-Morton Canal
The Bourne–Morton Canal is an archaeological feature to the north east of Bourne in Lincolnshire, England. In old maps and documents it is known as the Old Ea. It was a 6.5 km artificial waterway linking the dry ground at Bourne to the ancient edge of the sea near Pinchbeck, or perhaps to a...

 and to the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 as the Old Ea, seems to have given Bourne access by boat to the sea, which lay only at the far end of Bourne North Fen. This meant that the products of the fen
Fen
A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

 and coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...

 such as salt
Edible salt
Salt, also known as table salt, or rock salt, is a mineral that is composed primarily of sodium chloride , a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of ionic salts. It is essential for animal life in small quantities, but is harmful to animals and plants in excess...

 and animal products such as fowls, meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

, wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 and leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

, could be brought across the fen which would normally have obstructed such traffic. This trade may be enough to explain the six Roman roads which radiated, directly or separating a short distance away, from the site. The Long Hollow Road and King Street were two of these, linking respectively, north and south, into the trunk road system by way of Ermine Street.

Road construction

In an archaeological excavation of the road at the southern edge of Bourne (TF098193), where it ran across a margin between Kellaways clay and the argillaceous (clayey) Kellaways sand, it was found that the construction of the carriageway had been done by digging two parallel shallow trenches into the subsoil and over-filling them with gravel ballast so as to form kerbs. Coarse sand was used to form the carriageway between them. This was a skilful use of the available materials as south of Kate's Bridge, the road passes over such minerals but little but rather friable Cornbrash
Cornbrash
In geology, Cornbrash was the name applied to the uppermost member of the Bathonian stage of the Jurassic formation in England. It is an old English agricultural name applied in Wiltshire to a variety of loose rubble or brash which, in that part of the country, forms a good soil for growing corn...

 is available near the excavated site. Clearly, this part of the road was constructed from the south, northwards and the materials carried along it. However, further north, in the Long Hollow, cornbrash from Sapperton TF019239, seems to have been used (Lane p. 23.) Again, the use is north of the source.

B.B. Simmons has spent much time excavating a roadside Roman town in the parish of Sapperton. His publications are listed in Lane's Ropsley and Humby book. The latter (plates 7a & b) also shows aerial photographs of the road as a soil mark around TF003367. This is the same mark as appears in photo 4 below.

Aerial photographs


External links

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