Roman Roads in Britain - Post-Roman Legacy

Post-Roman Legacy

After the final withdrawal of Roman government and troops from Britain in 410, regular maintenance and repair of the road network probably ceased, and was replaced by intermittent and ad hoc work. Nevertheless, the Roman roads remained the fundamental arteries of transport in England for centuries, and systematic construction of paved highways did not resume until the building of the turnpikes in the 18th century.

In some places, the origins of the roads were forgotten and they were ascribed to mythical Anglo-Saxon giants and divinities: for instance, Wade's Causeway in North Yorkshire owes its name to Wōden, the supreme god of Germanic and Norse mythology. Chaucer's pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales almost certainly used Watling Street to travel from Southwark to Canterbury.

Many modern roads still overlie Roman roads. Much of Watling Street, for example, is now under the A2 and A5.

Many English placenames derive from a position on or near a Roman road, usually denoted by the element -street (also strat-, strait-, streat- and other variants). Thus, for example, Stretham means "homestead or village on a Roman road" and likewise Stretford means "ford on a Roman road". There are seventeen places in England named Stretton, of which all but two are evidently located on a Roman road.