Location :
North Yorkshire
Selby
York
Askham Richard, Bishopthorpe, Tadcaster, Catterton, Steeton, Colton, Bilbrough, Copmanthorpe, Askham Bryan
Non Civil Parish
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More information : RR 28c Roman Road. Tadcaster - York.
This road was laid upon a direct alignment from Tadcaster to Middlethorpe where it turned more to the north and directly to York.
The present road represents it from beyond the River Wharfe as far as Islington, after which the course is derelict to Street Houses and again for a mile beyond; the present road swinging away to the south, and then north of the alignment and only rejoining it after Copmanthorpe. The alignment is well marked by either lanes or hedgerows with considerable remains of the agger, which at its best is 30 feet wide and 2 feet high with much stone and pebbles visible at some points.
The road was exposed as a surface of gravel with a few cobbles, 21 feet 8 inches at its fullest width with a very slight camber, just to the west of Street Houses during building work (It was also found at Hob Moor Lane near York as a tightly rammed gravel and clay layer, 67 feet 6 inches wide). Beyond Street Houses the agger appears beside a hedgerow and after a mile the lane from Colton to Copmanthorpe, obviously raised on a slight agger, takes up the line. At Copmanthorpe the main road marks the alignment, turning more to the north near Middlethorpe and directly to York. Through Dringhouses the original course appears to follow the Tadcaster Road as far as the Methodist Church. Beyond this it lies a little to the west of the present road as proved by excavations in the entrance to St Helen's Road. Slight turns seem to have been made just south of St George's Place and at the top of the Mount, after which the road ran a straight course to the Roman bridge over the Ouse and into the fort. (1)
Road 10, approaching York from Tadcaster diverge at the Methodist Chapel, Dringhouses (SE 586 495), the modern road making a slight bow to the east. The old alignment was found in 1902 in St Helen's Road (SE 587 497) and in 1953 part of its cobbling and ditch were seen during the building of No 278 Tadcaster Road. In 1879 the road was found composed of cobbles laid on `concrete', north-west of Blossom Street under No1 The Crescent (SE 5958 5132). On the opposite side of The Crescent it was seen again in 1936 during the building of the Odeon Cinema (SE 596 514) and in 1953 the road was sectioned 40 yards to the north-east (SE 5965 5141 - see also RR 8a (LINEAR 290). The position of these discoveries fix the alignment from Blossom Street to the Ouse, passing south of Toft Green and diagonally across Tanner Row to the river opposite the Guildhall where the head of the Roman bridge was discovered in 1893. On the north-east bank of the river the road leading to the south-west gate of the fortress has been found. The junction with Road 2 from Brough (RR 2e - LINEAR 272) and Road 5 from the north-west (RR 801 - LINEAR 287) lay outside the fortress, between the river and the gate. (2)
See Linear Archive File for further details. (3) |