Via Romanae & Milliarium

If you have seen previous extracts from this blog you will probably have worked out that I have this thing about maps. I love them and can quite happily sit down and read one as other people will read a good book. We are very lucky in the United Kingdom as we have some of the best maps in the world because they contain so much information. Looking at the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale Explorer Map of the Ashdown Forest you can clearly see many sites of Antiquity including the course of an old Roman Road (Via Romanae).

This is the remains of a road that linked Lewes with London and starts at the bottom of the map near Buckham Hill to the west of Uckfield. It carries on north past Maresfield up onto the Ashdown Forest following the ridge line until eventually leaving the map near Holteye to the north west of Hartfield. The road then continues up through Edenbridge, Titsey hill and West Wickham (half a mile from my old house) and on into London.

These roads or streets were constructed to follow a straight line as far as possible, only deviating when necessary to avoid serious obstructions in the landscape. Many modern roads have been built on top of these Roman ones. A short section of this road is visible opposite Crows Nest camp, alongside the B2026 and conveniently placed in Roman road car park (so that's why it's called Roman road Car park then; and why did they build Windsor Castle so close to the airport). Although it is covered in heather you can clearly see the raised road surface or Agger with a ditch on either side.

At every mile along these roads the Romans placed a milestone (Milliarium) which was normally a stone pillar standing about 6 feet tall showing the distance between two major towns. On the Continent the milestones showed the distance from Rome itself and in the centre of Rome was the Milliarum Aureum or Golden milestone. The Roman mile was 1000 double paces approximately 1720 yards, a bit shorter than an English mile at 1760 yards.

A short way north of  Roman road car park alongside the B2026 can be seen a milepost from a later date. This milepost shows the distance from London's Eleanor cross which stands outside the front of Charing Cross railway station in central London, close to Trafalgar Square.

Apparently in days gone by there was a Decree that the King could not travel more than fifty miles from london without a Minister. This annoyed the Georgian Royalty particularly the Prince Regent (renowned for his philandering at the Dome) to such an extent that although Brighton is fifty four miles from London all the milestones showed that it was less than fifty.

Stage coach companies used these mileposts to work out their fares; and when the first postal service was formed these distances were used to calculate how much postage needed to be paid for the delivery of mail to a particular address. Even up to a few years ago Metropolitan Police Officers were not allowed to live more than thirty miles from Charing Cross.