A Walk through Leicester / being a Guide to Strangers

by Susannah Watts

To the westward of Danett’s Hall, and West-cotes, the seat of Mr.

Ruding, is a lane or bridle road, commonly called the Fosse, but various reasons lead to the belief that it is not part of the antient Roman road of that name. The unvarying testimony of tradition has clearly proved that the road from the town westward lay, in the reign of Richard the third, over Bow-Bridge. By attending to the Fosse, which runs nearly in the line of the Narborough road by West-cotes, it will seem likewise necessary to conclude that the approach to Leicester, in the time of the Romans, was also over a bridge situate near that spot; for as it is certain that the Fosse did pass thro’ Leicester, and the Romans in forming their roads scrupulously adhered to the strait line, they would cross the old Soar near this place.

When the Romans penetrated into Britain under the reign of Claudius, they found it almost in every part, crowded with woods, and infested with morasses; and as the natives well knew how to avail themeslves of these fastnesses, the island could never be considered as effectually conquered till it was rendered accessible to the march of the legions, and means were provided for speedy communication of intelligence from even the most distant parts of the provinces. On this account their Cohorts early applied themselves to the task of forming roads; nor did they cease their labours till in the time of Antoninus, they had opened passages thro’ the island in all directions. In the reign of that emperor, these works, connected with others which they had already constructed on the continent, formed a great chain of

communication, which, passing thro’ Rome, from the Pict’s wall, or north west, to Jerusalem, nearly the southeast point of the empire, was drawn out to the length of 4080 Roman, or as Mr. Reynolds has shewn, of so many British statute miles. Along these roads proper relays of horses were stationed at short distances, and it seems that couriers could travel with ease above an hundred miles a day. Two of these roads, as already observed, passed thro’ Leicester. One, the Via Devana, leading from Camalodunum, or Colchester, in Essex, to Deva, of west Chester, a distance of about two hundred miles, has been lately discovered by some ingenious and able Antiquaries of the University of Cambridge.

It enters Leicestershire in the neighbourhood of Rockingham; continues

a strait road for many miles till it nearly reaches Leicester, and passing thro’ the town it is found to leave the county near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The other road, called the Via Fossata or Fosse, always known, and every where remarkable, traverses the island in a north-east direction, from near Grimsby on the coast of Lincolnshire, passes thro’ Bath, and terminates at Seaton, a village situated on the coast of Devonshire, a distance of more than two hundred and fifty miles. This road enters Leicesteshire at a place called Seg’s Hill, on the wolds, or antiently wild and uncultivated parts of the county; from thence it passes the village of Thurmaston and approaches the East gates of Leicester, by the street called the Belgrave Gate. On the south-west of the town it is again recognized in the

Narborough road, and from that village it proceeds again a solitary lane till it enters Warwickshire at High Cross, where it crosses the no less celebrated Roman road, the Watling-Street. It is well known that in the formation of these roads, the Romans spared no cost and labour. From the remains of some of them it appears that upon a bed of sand they spread a coating of gravel, upon which the pebbles, and sometimes hewn or squared stones were laid, firmly compacted together in a bed of cement. This, we have reason to believe, was the structure of such of the roads in this island as are distinguished by the title of Street, a word derived from the Latin Strata, meaning formed of layers. But such pains were not, it is probable, taken in all cases; and from the name of one of the roads passing

thro’ Leicester, the Fosse, an abbreviation of the Latin Via Fossata, meaning the way ditched, or dug, we cannot but conclude that it was a road raised by the spade and formed with a rampart, and probably covered with gravel in the manner of our present turnpike roads. The same may also be said of the Via Divana, whose rampart, now covered with grass, the ingenious discoverers observed in many places.

When the Saxons subdued this island, after the departure of the Romans, to preserve a ready communication between distant places formed no part of then rude and simple policy. Hence the best roads of the Romans were neglected by them, and since the Romans had either forbidden, or the inclination of the Britons had dissuaded them from erecting villages on the line of public

roads, those roads became useless, and their lasting materials are only to be found, tho’ not distinguished, in the foundations of the neighbouring habitations. As it would always be more easy to carry away the materials of a Roman road than dig for them in a quarry, it has happened that those materials have been in general so intirely removed, as to leave almost no where any other trace, than history and tradition, of their existence.