ROMANO-BRITISH NORFOLK 5. Roads In a district such as we have hitherto described, where towns were few and small and country houses rare, we should expect roads also to be infrequent. And as a fact we find but few Roman roads within the bounds of Norfolk. Our antiquaries have not always accepted this view. Like Mr. Samuel Woodward in the map which he drew up some seventy years ago, they have preferred to cover the county with a network of what they hold to be proved or probable Roman ways, and they have not been afraid to add imaginary British tracks. But an examination of the actual evidence yields a different and perhaps more credible picture. Our evidence for determining Roman roads is of two kinds, written and archaeological. The archasological evidence is that presented by remains on the ground. We may for instance find ancient metalling along a line where a Roman road might reasonably be expected. Or we may find a still existing track which runs with persistent straightness from one Roman site towards another. The written evidence is more elaborate. Charters tell us of streets bounding estates to which the docu- ments refer. Place-names like Stratton and Stratford, if of established antiquity, suggest ancient and often Roman ways.^ Parish or county boundaries sometimes preserve curious information. But our chief written evidence is that of the Itinerarium Antonini, a Roman road-book, which gives the distances and stations along various routes in the Roman Empire. Its exact age and object are disputed and do not now concern us. Its accuracy, which matters more, is by no means complete, and in general it is perhaps more useful as testifying that a road ran in a particular direction, as for instance from London to Norfolk or to Lincoln, than in telling us the precise distances from ' station ' to ' station.' For our present purpose, the following routes are material. We give the dis- tances as given in the Itinerary, in Roman miles, 13 of which may be reckoned as equivalent to 1 2 English miles. 1. Route from Venta Icenorum to London : Venta to Sitomagus, 32 miles; Sitomagus to Combretonium, 22 miles; Combretonium to Ad Ansam, 1 5 miles ; Ad Ansam to Camulodunum (Colchester), 6 miles ; and so on. 2. Part of route from London to Carlisle by Colchester, Chester- ton near Peterborough and Lincoln : Colchester (Colonia) to Villa Faustini, 35 miles ; Villa Faustini to ' Icinos,' 18 miles ; to Camboritum, 35 miles ; and so on. Combining these evidences, let us attempt to sketch the Roman roads of Norfolk. They are in so far easy to describe, in that they belong to one road system, that which served the eastern counties, but our views about them must in part depend on our views of certain Roman roads in Suffolk and adjoining counties, and we cannot limit ourselves absolutely to the bounds of Norfolk. 1 The name ' Portway ' should not be included among names indicative of Roman roads. It means simply ' road to the town,' and was frequently applied to roads which there is not the least reason to call Roman. 299
