Seeking a Roman Road
Time travel may not quite be possible, but out on some of the Lake District’s highest fells, if you close your eyes, let the wind whisper to you, you might imagine what has gone before … there has been human activity in the Lake District fells, including its commons, for millennia.
Perhaps it’s easier for me to imagine going back in time on this sunny morning because of the company I’m keeping. I’m out here looking over Bampton Common with archeologist Martin Railton, director of Eden Heritage. He’s come to meet Rob and me to tell us about recent excavations studying the Roman road that follows a high, broad spine of land, and would once have echoed with the footfall of marching soldiers. This was the highest Roman route in Britain.
Behind us Loadpot Hill marks the start of the ridge that gives a more-or-less direct route from Penrith to Ambleside, both of which once had Roman forts. Following this high route would have been easier and faster than weaving in and out of valleys, navigating woods, wetlands and river courses; certainly when marching as a group. And if you were to walk along the High Street today, you’d probably agree. After the first challenging ascent to gain height, the going is relatively easy. And the view is wonderful.
The story of the Roman route is well known but surprisingly there has been little work to uncover archeological evidence of its presence on the common. In the 19th Century there was speculation, but it was unclear what this ‘Roman road’ might have been made of. So, in August 2022, when Martin helped to run a two-week community project, he and his team were breaking new ground. Carried out in conjunction with the Lake District National Park Authority and one element of the Our Upland Commons suite of work, this dig was the first of its kind on Bampton common. The area of the excavation is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England who have carried out aerial surveys, but they haven’t worked on the ground. This community dig hoped to unearth some new insights.
Busy digging, August 2022. Image: Eden Heritage Ltd
“Ordnance Survey maps a route across the fell tops,” Martin tells me, “but we were interested in knowing what the actual physical evidence was for a road. Was there a physical feature that we could find and investigate?”
For two weeks, volunteers came up every day. Their work began with walking, looking for evidence of earthworks. This was followed by geophysical surveys using equipment to detect buried features. And when the group thought they'd found some evidence, they dug trenches to take a closer look.
Digging a trench. Image: Eden Heritage Ltd
As I listen to Martin, I find myself getting quite excited - what was found? I hang on to his every word as he describes what was uncovered. The team found evidence of ditches that had been dug either side of the route to aid drainage. They also discovered some deep trackways - but these tell different stories. Some tracks reveal packhorse routes, which go back to medieval times, and perhaps further. These are meandering, often narrow and deep, and hollowed out compared to the surrounding landscape. “It's typical of what might be worn by regular use by pack horses,” says Martin. “And we know that they were digging peat and bringing it down for fuel.”
It’s hard to say just how long some of these routes might have been used for; and harder still to guess how many have left no trace. But the landscape does hold markers from ‘prehistory’. Within sight of where we’re standing, above the village of Helton is one example: a stone circle known as the Cockpit. It’s one of many in Cumbria, and pathways between such monuments criss-cross this land, and may have been followed consistently since then. “There’s circumstantial evidence that the High Street route could be prehistoric, and was simply re-used by the Romans,” says Martin.
Cockpit Stone Circle
We fall silent and drift a little, with thoughts of Bronze Age families and communities wandering these fells, finding the easiest ways through, and meeting at monuments. We also discuss what stone circles might have been used for - but without time travel, this will always be a guess. It’s far easier to visualise the marching Roman soldiers, and while they have left forts behind them - Galava at Ambleside and Voreda near Penrith - the evidence of physical roads connecting them have remained more elusive. Perhaps this was one of the attractions for volunteers.
Martin tells me a little more about the people who joined the dig. There were eight people each day, their ages ranged from 8 to 80; some had never done any archeology before. Some came from outside Cumbria, and some were local. “We had a number of people from Bampton, who know the landscape really well but don't necessarily understand what's here in terms of archaeological remains. Everybody who took part was really inspired not just by the landscape today, but by the fact that we're making new discoveries - and being the first people to see things that have been buried for centuries.”
I ask Martin why he thinks archeology is important. “I think it gives you a sense of belonging,” he answers, “When you connect with people in the past, that gives you a very personal experience of a place.” Beyond this, I’m curious to know what Martin thinks about the way learning about history might contribute to the way we live today. He gestures towards the bright hills. “Well, archaeology teaches us about the way people have used landscapes in the past. We're looking at a landscape that's been modified by humans over millennia: we are learning about how the landscape might have been originally, how it has been changed and adapted over time, and what the effects of those changes were. It can make you think about which systems were long lived, and which ones didn't continue because they weren’t sustainable.”
“I think it gives you a sense of belonging. When you connect with people in the past, that gives you a very personal experience of a place ... and It can make you think about which systems were long lived, and which ones didn’t continue because they weren’t sustainable. ”
Martin continues. “When we look at the fells today - originally they would have been wooded, but were probably cleared in prehistory. Then soil erosion has taken place and they've become denuded of trees and vegetation. So in some ways that clearance was disruptive, but there are other systems that have been sustained over long periods. I think archaeology can help you understand a bit more about what's sustainable, what isn't.” I think about packhorses, laden with blocks of peat, cut from the hill and taken to farms and houses for fuel, and how things have changed: today, the relationship with peat is to heal the cuts, and keep it in the ground.
We’ve wandered off topic but I come back to the dig: were there any big surprises on the excavation? Martin’s answer throws me: “I think the jury's still out whether the Romans actually built a road. We didn't find any physical, dated evidence to say: yes, the Romans were here.”
I feel let down. No paving stones, no physical road. But then I rethink it: maybe the dig showed something just as meaningful about the way that people have, for so many centuries, navigated the land in response to the features it offers them. This ‘High Street’ is wide and kind under foot. It is stony in parts, making it almost as good as any road, and the drainage ditches would have helped to avert bogginess in wetter sections. It’s possible, Martin tells me, that there was additional gravel added, but perhaps we’ll never know. And it is, of course, extremely likely that the Romans marched here. Archeology can’t gather echoes of footprints; it can only look for hard evidence.
“I think in reality, roads were adapted depending on local circumstances,” says Martin. “So in some places, that might be beautifully cobbled, in other places it might just be a gravel trackway. Or there might be nothing at all if it's bedrock. They're based on local materials and local conditions.” This last comment brings it right back to reality: people working with the materials they had to hand, in the situations they found themselves in, to make the best of it. In that respect, the Romans were not that different from the Bronze Age communities before them, or from today’s commoners: all doing the best they can to work with what they’ve got, wherever they find themselves, and adapting to changing times.
