The 'Via Devana' - a 'lost road' found! (Pt2)

 A 'lost road' lost again!

  In part one of the 'lost road' blog, I traced the route of the Via Devana from the south of Cambridge through to Ryknild Street in Staffordshire, by way of Leicester and a River Trent crossing on the Derbys/Staffs border. In part two, I consider some possible options for the route continuing to the west and/or northwest of Ryknild Street.

 After meeting Ryknild Street, it is unclear exactly which direction the Via Devana route may have taken. Turning to the southwest a traveller could have reached Watling Street at Wall (Letocetum), then proceeded via Water Eaton (Pennocrucium) and Whitchurch (Mediolanum) to Chester (Deva). The alternative would have been to turn northeast on Ryknild Street to reach Littlechester (Derventio) at Derby. From Littlechester, a road ran due west to Rocester, then on to Upper Teen where it turned to the northwest to Chesterton north of Newcastle under Lyme. Although the route from here is again unclear; it could have turned west to reach Chester via Nantwich, or continued to the northwest via Middlewich (Salinae) and Northwich (Condate).^[1]

 Was there a more direct route to the northwest of the Ryknild Street junction? The Staffordshire Historic Environment Record (SHER) has just such a route.^[2] They suggest that it turned to the west towards Stafford via Hoar Cross.

Map plot of Staffordshire HER records of archaeological features, from www.heritagegateway.org.uk Proposed SHER route of Roman road runs diagonally across the map, with another feature running past Highlands Park (right of centre).

 Older Ordnance Survey maps show that there was a track crossing the Trent flood plain westwards from the river, heading towards the base of the Staffordshire hills at Hobhole Dingle. From here a cropmark and Lidar feature may be seen running north west past Highlands Park, towards the junction of roads at Rangemoor. This feature is also recorded on the SHER, but has been classed as a possible post medieval water feature.^[3]

 But might the trackway have been much older? It is possible to envisage a route crossing the Staffordshire Moorlands from Branston to reach Uttoxeter, or the bend in the road from Rocester near Upper Teen. This may have been too arduous a route for the general traveller though and would have entailed negotiating the Marchington cliff. A slightly easier route to Uttoxeter might have been found by following Ryknild Street north east to Stretton, then along the River Dove valley via Tutbury.

Map of some Staffordshire/Derbyshire Roman roads, with possible west/north west continuation routes of the Via Devana. (Includes data courtesy of Staffordshire Historic Environment Record)

 The Via Devana does not appear to have been a major communications route within Roman Britain, at least to the west of Leicester and has not survived into modern times as for instance Watling Street (A5), or Ryknild Street (A38). It may have been no more than a Romanised pre-existing British route. The names of the places it could have passed through to the northwest may be clues as to its origins: Middlewich, Northwich and Nantwich are all associated with salt production,^[4] a commodity much valued since prehistoric times.

 A particular type of low fired ceramic associated with the Cheshire salt producing region is known as Very Coarse Pottery (VCP). It was used in the production and distribution of salt, and has been found on sites in the Midlands including; Fisherwick (Staffs), Gamston (Notts), Breedon-on-the-Hill (Leics), Swarkestone Lowes and Aston-on-Trent (Derbys) and intriguingly in relation to the Via Devana, at Normanton-le-Heath (Leics).^[5]

 In addition, had the route run over the Staffordshire Moorlands, it would have passed close to Fauld, with its gypsum and alabaster quarries and Uttoxeter, where iron mines were located nearby. These products would have been much in demand in the Roman towns. This route, however, may have been too arduous for the average Roman or later traveller and use eventually declined.

  If the course of the route ran a little to the north of Stafford, it might have passed close to Hixon. Here is located Pasturefields saltmarsh, one of the few remaining inland salt marshes in Britain. Continuing further northwest, what is now the eponymously named village of Salt is encountered. It is not clear how anciently salt was being produced there from its brine springs, although the (Selte) place name was recorded in the Domesday survey. Perhaps salt could have been sourced from this area of Staffordshire in the Roman or earlier times?^[6]

Walton-on-Trent postscript.

 A crossing of the River Trent near Walton by way of a ford has long been known. Today the river has a depth ranging between c.1-2m at Drakelow^[7] and may have been lower in the past. A first reference to a ford occurs in 1322, at the 'Battle of Burton Bridge' (a bit of a misnomer as no great conflict took place), during the 'Despencer War'.^[8]

 This conflict saw a group of Barons revolt against King Edward II. A force under the command of Thomas Earl of Lancaster were ensconced in Burton and had barricaded the western (town) end of the old medieval bridge.

 King Edward's forces approached from Coventry, arriving at Caldwell. If following the road which later became the A444, they could have encountered the Via Devana, if it was still useable, at Linton Heath/Overseal and followed it to Caldwell. King Edward's force was divided into two, with one part being shown where to ford  the Trent at Walton, possibly by a retainer of Burton abbey whose inhabitants may have become tired of 'entertaining' the Lancastrians. As King Edward was now able to threaten the town from the south, the Lancastrian force decamped from Burton. Thomas was among those later captured and executed.

 Recent geophysical survey work carried out by members of the Transforming the Trent Valley team, found evidence for the Via Devana approaching the River Trent. The TTTV team also found evidence of a probable fort, which had been seen in aerial photographs and may have guarded the crossing (Mark Knight pers comm).

Linton postscript.

 In another one of those curious circles of coincidence, in following the Via Devana route to Cheshire, I have come across a strand of evidence which takes me back to the subject of one of my other blog themes - 'The Lost Lanes of Linton'! Besides trying to identify other 'lost lanes' in the South Derbyshire village in which I grew up and through which the Via Devana ran, I attempted to determine the origins of the name of the street on which I lived - Main St (earlier Wallway).

 As noted above, Mike Nevell referred to a type of early pottery (VCP), characteristic of the Cheshire salt producing region, in chapter 1 of 'Brine in Britannia'. Chapter 4 of the same volume by Peter Connelly and David Power describes recent evidence for Roman salt making in Nantwich. Included is a hand drawn map titled; 'Survey of the Walling Lands of Nantwich September 2nd 1624'.

 The etymology of the term 'walling' is not explored by Connelly and Power. However, clarity is to be found on the Salt Association web site.^[9] In the medieval town records of Nantwich, women employed to work the salt pans were referred to as 'wallers'. Areas on both sides of the river Weaver where salt panning took place were designated as 'Walling Land'. For the 'Salt' or 'Walling Mdw', (a field in Nantwich), the English Placename Society online database gives the etymology as: probably a 'walling ground' where brine was 'walled' or seethed.^[10]

 How might this relate to Wallway in Linton? South Derbyshire certainly has had no known salt producing industry, but it is conceivable that Wallway could have been one strand of the routes along which salt was transported from the Staffordshire/Cheshire production centres, such as the locally well known at least, 'Walton Way'. This ran from Walton-on-Trent to Measham, and almost certainly further on. It is shown as the southern limit of the 1821 'Hartshorn' Ordnance Survey preparatory drawing below.^[11]

Extract of Henry Stevens 1821 'Hartshorn' Ordnance Survey drawing. (Licence: OGL V1.0)

 There were several ponds in the fields adjacent to Wallway/Main St, and the cellar of the house we lived in was always a little damp; water occasionally running in the small drain in its brick floor. One of the two local collieries also closed due to flooding in 1947. Perhaps the Wallway name then, just referred to a wet area, where water seethed, or welled-up out of the ground.

Dr. Mark Knight is a Cultural Heritage Officer with the TTTV team.

References:

[1] Roman Britain. Ordnance Survey Ltd, Southampton, UK 2016. 

[2] Staffordshire Historic Environment Record N°: 54239, MonUID: MST18008. 

[3] Staffordshire Historic Environment Record N°: 53664, MonUID: MST17431. 

[4] Connelly, P. and Power, D. in Brine in Britannia, Archaeology North West, Vol 7, issue 17 (for 2004-5), pp 31-40.

[5] Nevell, M. in Brine in Britannia, Archaeology North West, Vol 7, issue 17 (for 2004-5), pp 9-14.

[6] https://opendomesday.org/place/SJ9527/salt/ [accessed 26th October 2023]

[7] https://riverlevels.uk/river-trent-drakelow [accessed 10th October 2023]

[8] A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 9, Burton-Upon-Trent, ed. Nigel J Tringham (London, 2003), British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol9 [accessed 9th October 2023]

[9] Salt in the MiddleAges.  https://saltassociation.co.uk/education/salt-history/middle-ages/ [accessed 10th October 2023]

[10] English Placename Society. https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/search/p/%28placeName%3A%2AWalling%2A%29 [accessed 10th October 2023]

[11] 

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ordnance_Survey_Drawings_-_Hartshorn_(OSD_295).jpg [accessed 26th October 2023]