The Great Portway

This is the route of my conjectured Roman road called Portway. (Not to be confused with the southern Roman Portway which runs from Silchester to Old Sarum.)

The Romans famously built roads across Britain. However, they also utilised existing roads and tracks too.

Myconjectured Portway is largely made up of roads which pre-dated the Roman arrival. There may have been some connecting work carried out by the Romans to give the north-south route its continuity, but much of theroute would have existed before this, albeit in a fragmented form. After the Roman departure, the route continued in use as a north-south trading corridor, right up to the seventeenth century, when the steep and rough terrain in parts meant that it was largely left off the systemof turnpikes. 

This is my conjectured Roman road and its approximation to the present-day road system.

The Great Portway

The curtain walls at Silchester still stand to an impressive height

The Portway runs northwards, out of the Thames valley.

Silchester

The road which ran northwards from the Roman town of Sichester left through the North Gate but there is no strong evidence for its line beyond this. My modern road approximation is:

Mortimer West End

Ufton Nervet

Sulamstead

The fording of the River Kennet would have been somewhere on an alignmet between Ufton Nervet and the modern A340. For my itinerary Tylemill Bridge offers the nearest crossing.

The A340 is a straight Roman Road. (Interestingly, just to the east of it, north of Theale, there are resonances of a roman road in the hamlet name of North Street, though it is off the alignment. Did the river crossing upset the desired northbound alignment, taking it through present-day Theale and North Street before its realignment further on?)

Tidmarsh

Pangbourne.

(There is a known Roman Road which keeps to the west of the Thames, hugging the west bank, before crossing the river near Shillingford to the Roman town of Dorchester on Thames. However. my conjectured Portway continues northwards on the established alignment, meaning that the Thames would have been forded here.)

Whitchurch Bridge (Toll)

Whitchurch-on Thames

Whist not dead straight, the Roman road alignment broadly follows the B471 up the Chiltern escarpment. There are resonances of a Roman road in the place-names of Cold Harbour and Broad Street Farm nearby, which may offer a more accurate road alignment than the present-day road.

Woodcote

(Here my itinerary meets the present-day A4074)

My reason for believing that this modern A road has a place on my Portway itinerary is two-fold.

Just to the east of Woodcote is Exlade Street, a place name redolent of a Roman road.

Just to the west of Woodcote, the A4074 is actually named as Port Way on the Ordnance Survey maps, in the area where it crosses the Ancient British Icknield Street. Roman coins have been found at these ancient crossroads.

Whilst the road name Portway was a relatively common post-Roman description of a road to a market, it is possible that this Port Way on the A4074 is related to the road named Port Way after Kirtlington, thereby giving continuity to my route.

Crowmarsh Gifford (Now bypassed.)

Here the Port Way meets the Roman road from Henley-on-Thames.

Benson

(Benso had many Royal connections in the post-Romano-British and Saxon eras. This suggests that nearby Roman roads would have continued in use after the Roman departure.)

There are two options from Benson.

Option 1

Dorchester-on-Thames (Roman town)

From here a Roman road went to Alchester (near Bicester) via Beckley.

Option 2

The Portway continues northwards from Benson to Beckley.

The route is lost and vague here and ‘un-Roman’. Tributaries of the Thames and the floodplain of the meandering Thame would have caused deviations (even by the Romans) from a direct route, or the Roman road followed pre-Roman trackways through the low wetlands, or both.

An area of multi-phase occupation spanning the Neolithic to Roman periods has been excavated on the Berrick-Warborough boundary west of Berrick Salome village, adjoining a likely Roman road which the boundary follows.

The road would have left Benson via Hale Farm, following the parish boundary to Ladybrook Copse, after which the parish boundary with Drayton St Leonard strikes northwards to join a metalled lane at Lane End Farm.

My close-by metalled road itinerary from Benson is:

Berrick Salome

Berrick Prior

Newington

Stadhampton

Chiselhampton (an important historical crossing on the River Thame).

B480 northwards

Garsington or Cuddesdon (leaving the wetlands behind, climbing to a ridgeway of higher ground).

The Cuddesdon option is my favoured one.

Turn right off the B480 along Denton Lane.

Denton

Cudddesdon

Wheatley

A Roman Villa has been excavated at Castle Hill Farm, just to the east of the Garsington/Cuddesdon to Wheatley road. There is also an excavated Roman cemetary next to the road just north of Coombe Wood.

Wheatley (I conjecture that my Portway joined an existing Roman road at Wheatley which was heading for Forest Hill, Beckley and Islip. I cite the following notes in support of the conjecture.)

What is now Wheatley centre was a T-junction for two Saxon roads, one taking the ridge to the north (Old London and London Road), the other crossing from Garsington to meet it, over the brook (culverted under High Street) up a hollow/sunken way (Holloway) in the direction of the hollow/sunken town (Holton). Both roads are described as straet (paved, usually old Roman roads). Old London/London Road was part of a straet.
There was also a herpaeth (army road) running from London to Worcester, across the Thame and through Forest Hill and Islip.*

The lower part of the hill where the road met the Hollow Brook (now culverted under High Street) was known as Ladder Hill (Crossing Hill) a reference to the crossing of the Brook. The crossing gave access, by Hollow Way, to the ancient straet or herpaeth (London Road) to Islip, Worcester and Wales, via Forest Hill.

*
Roman and Saxon Wheatley by John Fox
https://www.wheatleyarchive.org.uk/images/files/2620-roman-and-saxon-wheatley-by-john-fox-no-images.pdf

The Main Road from London Via Forest Hill & Islip to Worcester, the Marches & Wales. ran through Wheatley (predominantly the A44 after Islip).

B4027

Forest Hill

I conjecture that from Forest Hill, the Portway followed what is now a bridleway, north to Breach Farm, Woodperry, past Beckley church, to join the present B4027 near Woodmoor Copse.

At Beckley the Portway crossed the Dorchester-on-Thames to Alchester Roman Road, making Beckley an important Roman crossroads town.

The present B4027 is a turnpike road that by-passes Stanton St John and Beckley.

Royal Oak Farm on this section of turnpike was clearly a coaching inn.

Islip

Islip is the obvious crossing point of the River Ray, leaving the route to thread its way around streams, brooks and springs, as higher ground begins to be met at Bletchington and more consistently after Kirtlinton.

Bletchington

Kirtlinton

Crossing the Roman Ackerman Street north of Kirtlington, the route keeps to the higher ground east of the Cherwell and west of Gallos Brook.

The road is named once more on the Ordnance Survey Map as Port Way at this point.

It is severed in twain by the old RAF airfield and subsequent developments at Upper Heyford, but the route clearly picks up again as a bridleway at Village Farm, actually passing a farm named Portway Farm, before being severed again by the M40.

Upper Heyford

The route is picked up again as a bridleway, before a metalled road continues the route at Souldern, taking us to Aynhoe.

Souldern

Aynhoe

From Aynhoe, it continues as bridleway to Charlton, passing the Ancient British hill fort of Rainsborough Camp.

Rainsborough Camp

Charlton

From Charlton it continues as a metalled road to Farthinghoe and Marston St Lawrence, passing between Thorpe Mandeville and Sulgrave at the crossroads by the former drovers’ inn now called Magpie Farm.
Farthinghoe

Marston St Lawrence

Thorpe Mandeville

Sulgrave

Passing east of Culworth, the metalled roadway is broken briefly at Crockwell Farm, continuing again as a metalled lane to Preston Capes.

Crockwell Farm

Preston Capes

At Preston Capes there is a Motte and Bailey Castle at the roadside, suggesting that as a trading route in the Middle Ages the Portway may have been thought worth defending, or controlling.

Though the original trackway is lost on this last section, the modern road from Preston Capes through Newnham still shows signs of its age. Crossing over the ridge towards the Ancient British hill fort of Borough Hill, there are thick ancient hedgerows, and occasional holloways on the hill-climbs.

Newnham

Borough Hill

The lane from Newnham to Borough Hill continues on the the village of Norton, near the site of the Roman town of Bannaventa, which is where the Portway joins Watling Street, opening up further travel options northwards.

Norton

Bannaventa

Watling Street