Romano-British road names
Encyclopedia
There are no records of names used by the Romano-British
for their roads, if they used names at all. The few surviving Roman maps and documents, such as the Antonine Itinerary
only distinguish roads by the towns which they served. Many Roman
roads in England
were re-named by the Anglo-Saxons
, although many more fell out of use and largely disappeared, now seen only in lines of trees, crop marks or parish boundaries. These lost roads are now identified by numbers, some with added letters, given to them by I D Margary.
'geat' or 'gate' (for example, Batham Gate
).
.
Romano-British
Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...
for their roads, if they used names at all. The few surviving Roman maps and documents, such as the Antonine Itinerary
Antonine Itinerary
The Antonine Itinerary is a register of the stations and distances along the various roads of the Roman empire, containing directions how to get from one Roman settlement to another...
only distinguish roads by the towns which they served. Many Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
roads in 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...
were re-named by the Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
, although many more fell out of use and largely disappeared, now seen only in lines of trees, crop marks or parish boundaries. These lost roads are now identified by numbers, some with added letters, given to them by I D Margary.
Roads ending in 'gate'
Roman roads used by the Saxons and hence re-named, in Old English, with the suffixSuffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
'geat' or 'gate' (for example, Batham Gate
Batham Gate
Batham Gate is the medieval name for a Roman road in Derbyshire, England, UK, which ran south-west from Templebrough on the River Don to Brough-on-Noe and the spa town of Buxton . Gate means "road" in northern English dialects; the name therefore means "road to the bath town".-External links:** ...
).
Roads ending in 'street'
In the Anglo-Saxon era, stræt (hence the modern word "street") simply meant a paved road (Latin: "via strata") as opposed to a native dirt track, and did not have the modern association with populated areas. It was therefore appended to many old Roman roads that remained in use in the Saxon and subsequent eras. The word stone or stane also occurs frequently so that there are two Stane Streets and two Stone Streets. There is also a Street Lane in LeedsLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
.