More information : Possible metalled track runs from TR 32126007 - TR 32226024. (1)
The cropmark remains of a curving metalled roadway seen to the west of the Roman fort at Richborough were mapped at 1:2500 scale as part of the English Heritage Richborough Environs Project. The road could be traced for around 600m running between TR 3227 6045 and TR 3200 5994 through the plough-levelled remains of the Roman settlement associated with the Roman fort. It is aligned roughly N-S, initially parallel to the western wall of the Roman fort and perpendicular to (and crossing)the E-W road from the fort to Canterbury. However, towards its southern end the road curves away to the south-west.
The Roman settlement appears to have two distinct areas lying on totally different alignments, linked by the curving stretch of metalled roadway. The alignment at the southern end of the track matches the altered alignment of the settlement in this area.
The roadway appears to have been in use for some considerable length of time, the settlement expanding and developing around it. The road is the one feature which has been consistently visible as a cropmark throughout several decades of aerial reconnaissance, possibly due to repeated re-metalling over time creating a considerable depth of compacted material.
The road cannot be traced to the north beyond the modern field boundary, but almost certainly extended further, possibly to a wharf or beaching at the northern edge of the island.
(2)
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