ROMAN ROADS IN YORKSHIRE
(D. Defoe, Tour through Great Britain, p. 123)
From Ferrybridge, within a mile of Pontefract, extends a large stone Causeway, about a mile in length, to a village called Brotherton. A little to the south of this village, the great Road divides into two parts; one goes on to the right to York, and the other through Aberford and Watherley to Scotland.... This Causeway in many places is entirely perfect, although undoubtedly a work of 16 or 1700 years old, and in other places where it is broken up, the courses appear to be of different materials; the bottom is clay or earth, upon that is chalk, then gravel, upon the gravel is stone, and then gravel upon that.... This Causeway runs in a direct line from Doncaster to Castleford, where it makes an angle and runs in another direct line to Aberford, Tadcaster and York. It is very easy to trace its course over moors and open grounds which have not been cultivated; but there are few or no remains upon the enclosed lands. There is no doubt but that the Romans had communications between all their stations in this country, by roads of this kind.