A piece of history – any information board? No!
I saw a twitter request t’other day for any royalty free pictures of Roman Roads – as I live quite close to a major Roman junction I went out and had a look.
On the edge of the parish of Claybrooke in Leicestershire there is the crossing of 2 of the most important roads to the Romans.
The A5 (also known as Watling Street) ran from Holyhead to Dover, whilst the Fosse Way runs from Exeter to Lincoln.
also marks the division of these two –
Both Roman roads have had many detours since they were constructed – the following pictures show that – with a bit of effort you can see the ‘straightness’ of the road.
Here’s the A5 from High Cross – looking SE towards Lutterworth.
Leicestershire is on the left – Warwickshire is on the right.
The path of the road is not as straight as it was in the past – the distant run of road – towards the skyline is probably 2km away.
Similarly – from High Cross the Fosse Way – looking south –
At High Cross looking North – the Fosse Way doesn’t follow the (now main road into Claybrooke) – but is now the road with the delightful name of
(And for Mike Brown 🙂 see the comment below) – the Fosse Way is now part of the Leicestershire Round – a bit I haven’t done as yet) – like so –
Further down the Fosse – near Croft there’s a much better example of a straight Roman Road!
Fosse Way (A4114 in this area) near Croft Quarry, Leicestershire.
There is evidence that roadstone used by the Romans came from the local quarry – which is now a pretty big hole! (Silverlight may be needed for the link).
The Fosse Way – North Leicestershire and Lincolnshire (now the A46).
This is a much busier road, and standing in the carriageway (see Croft – above) was not really an option.
Also – the weather wasn’t brilliant, but the straight road theme is fairly obvious!
This is the A46 – Fosse Way – between Leicester and the Nottinghamshire border at Six Hills.
Looking South West towards Leicester.
Again the A46 – this time looking east towards Lincolnshire.
In the same location – in the same direction – but using a different camera on the same day – this is the top of the hill in the distance on the picture above.
Yes there is a hill, something like 2 miles away.