The Story of the East Riding of YorkshireBrowne, Horace B. (Horace Baker)
History
The Story of the East Riding of Yorkshire
Browne, Horace B. (Horace Baker)
Yorkshire (England) -- History
Let us now see what the Roman road-makers did in East Yorkshire.
Stretching north from Londinium ran the military highway known in later
times as ERMIN STREET. At Lindum Colonia this branched in two
directions, both branches meeting eventually at Eboracum. Skirting the
impassable marshes around the meeting-places of the Yorkshire rivers and
the Trent, one branch reached Eboracum by bridges or fords across the
Trent, the Don, the Aire, and the Wharfe, where now stand Littleborough,
Doncaster, Castleford, and Tadcaster. The crossing-places were protected
by military stations which have since grown into these towns.
But directly north from Lincoln the second branch reached the Humber at
Winteringham, whence the river was crossed by ferry to Brough, where
also was a military station, named Petuaria. From Brough to York the
road passed through South Cave, South Newbald, Houghton Woods, Thorpe le
Street, Barmby Moor and Stamford Bridge. Along this second branch would
travel the Roman Emperors and Generals, the Imperial Post, and the
slave-carried litters and chairs of the Roman aristocracy; round by the
former would march the foreign troops drafted to Eboracum to replace the
wastage in the Sixth Legion, and the British levies on their way to
fight and die in other parts of the Roman world.
At South Newbald this Roman road branched to the right, passing by
Londesborough, Warter, Millington and Acklam, to a camp at Old Malton.
From Stamford Bridge eastward ran another road by Garrowby, Fimber,
Cottam and Kilham to a Roman station on the cliffs at Sewerby. Higher up
on the Wolds ran an alternative route by Fridaythorpe, Sledmere, Octon
and Rudston. These two roads are to-day known as the Low Street and the
High Street.
Smaller roads ran from Stamford Bridge to Old Malton, and from the
latter to Fimber and possibly farther south in the direction of
Beverley. Round the coast from Bridlington there was probably a
road—long since washed away—to a military station on the headland which
then existed about a mile to the east of the present Kilnsea.
In North Lincolnshire Ermin Street is a typical Roman military road, and
for the greater part of its course it is to-day the ‘king’s highway.’
But its northerly portion has, since the establishing of the Ferry at
New Holland, been disused, and is now but a green lane, whose very
surface is lost to view as we approach the Humber.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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