THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

FINDON'S ROMAN ROAD?

Copyright Valerie Martin 2007

Published in the Findon News in February 2007

For sure the Romans built a road cutting somewhere through the Findon area.    Today, no trace of such a highway remains but tantalising clues can be brought to the surface.

Most people know that the Romans built cambered roadways in straight lines and just as logically they must have inhabited areas close to these roads.   The majority of the Roman roads were constructed (often by the military) within a century of the conquest and they would have been in use throughout the Roman occupation and well beyond.  In the Findon countryside the conquerors had a community below Blackpatch Hill where they constructed a well for a water supply.  They also left remains of their presence on Cissbury Ring.   Therefore, they obviously needed local roads maybe running north to south — and perhaps also east to west in our area.

Excavations in Offington Lane have revealed evidence of some Roman habitation over the years — in the form of a cemetery.   Also there was probably a Roman villa situated close to the library in Richmond Road in nearby Worthing (just to the south of Findon).

Just over a hundred years ago, workmen were excavating the roots of a tree trunk on the site of 76 Grand Avenue in Worthing and much to their surprise unearthed a milestone next to Wellington Court (OS reference: TQ 1302).   This carried Latin inscriptions relating to the Emperor Constantine and the words —

Son of the divine Emperor Constantius  

The milestone I would guess dates from c. 315 and was discovered along with fragments of tiles and corn-grinding querns (this perhaps indicates that a farmstead stood on the site).   The presence of a milestone in Worthing meant a network of roads nearby and one of these surely led in a straight line northwards to the Findon downland.    If this was so, it would have passed comparatively close to the Roman Temple standing at Muntham (OS reference: TQ 1009) and/or the Chanctonbury Ring Roman Temple (OS reference: TQ l312).

How did the Romans travel along their long straight roads through the downland?   The means of transport was provided by horses, animal-pulled carts and most commonly of all, by foot. 

Nailed horseshoes were known by the Romans but they rarely utilised them.  It is thought that unshod horses did not use the metalled surfaces of the roads except when pulling wheeled transport and on these occasions hipposandals were worn to protect their hooves.    Hipposandals have been found throughout Sussex along with other forms of horse and cart fittings.    Hipposandals  were a form of horseshoe and were tied to the horses' hooves, rather than being nailed.    I understand that in some recent experiments the hipposandals fell off when used at more than a walking pace.  This makes me wonder if they were worn to protect injured feet, rather than being universally used.

Continue if you would like to read about  Findon's Roman Well.

 

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.