Roman roads may not be Roman after all

Archaeological discovery at Bayston Hill Quarry casts doubt on origins of Britain’s earliest roads

AN archaeological discovery at Tarmac’s Bayston Hill Quarry, in Shropshire, has thrown into question the belief that Roman invaders introduced roads to Britain. 



Excavations carried out at the site by environmental consultants SLR suggest that the Romans may have made use of existing roads engineered by Iron Age Britons.

The extraordinary find at the quarry shows that a metalled and cambered roadway was constructed in the first century BC, some 100 years before Emperor Claudius sent troops to conquer Britain.

‘The age and location of this find suggests that its construction was not as a result of Roman influence,’ said Tim Malim, who directed the SLR archaeology team.

‘It could well indicate that Iron Age Britons were sophisticated road engineers in their own right and had developed the technological expertise to build sophisticated all-weather roadways for wheeled traffic.’

Archaeologists working at the site say the road is more than 1.5m high and 6m wide, and was constructed in three distinct phases and surfaced with imported river cobbles.

So far, 400m of road have been unearthed and it is thought it may have connected the capital of the Cornovian tribe at the Wrekin with the Old Oswestry hill fort near Oswestry. 



Malcolm Lawer, estates manager for Tarmac, said: ‘This is an exciting discovery which we understand may change the accepted view that the Romans built the earliest roads in Britain.’     


Tarmac say the find provides a fitting continuity with the ancient past, as the high-quality stone currently extracted at Bayston Hill is used in roads and motorways across the UK, as well as in Grand Prix circuits such as Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.