ANCIENT BRITISH ROAD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19472, 6 May 1925, Page 11

ANCIENT BRITISH ROAD.

TIEB OLD FOSSE-WAY. The ancient highway called the Fosse, winch cuts across England from Exeter to Lincoln almost as straight as a ribbon drawn tight, has often puzzled historians. Tho Romans built most, probably all of it—but why ? It does not seem to have connected Important areas, nor to have linked up points on the coast So it is unlike the other Roman roads, which anticipated tho main transport routes of the present day with such surprising accuracy. A main railway lino runs side by side with each big Roman road except the Fosse. This has remained a puzzle. But now an interesting theory is put forward by Mr R. G Collingwood, who has lectured and written a great deal about Roman-British history. He thinks the Fosse-Way may have been built as a frontier across tho part of Britain first occupied by tho Romans, a first line of defence against the resentful tribes of Wales and the North. Thus it might have been a forerunner of tho famous Hadrian’s Wall which checked the incursions of raiding parties from Scotland It so the Roman legions mast nave kept a constant guard all along the lonely Fosse-Way, and forts would bo dotted over its whole length Mr Collingwood thinks that careful digging will reveal these forts, or their remains, deeply buried and long forgotten. They might bo found, ho says, near Leicester and Chesterton, which were Roman centres. It is a task, ho suggests, which the Birmingham Archaeological Society might do admirably, for that society has recently made some very valuable discoveries at Wroxetex, tho fine, Roman city near Shrewsbury.