View source for Chichester to Silchester Way

[[File:Milland Street.JPG|thumb|300px|The road in use at Milland]]
{{county|Hampshire}}
The '''Chichester to Silchester Way''' is a [[Roman road]] which ran between two tribal capitals in southern ''Britannia'', but which was lost in later ages until discovered by twentieth century archaeologists.

The road ran between [[Chichester]] in [[Sussex]], which as ''Noviomagus'' was capital of the ''Regnenses'', and [[Silchester]] in [[Hampshire]], known to the Romans as ''[[Calleva Atrebatum]]'', capital of the ''Atrebates''. The road had been entirely lost and forgotten, leaving no Saxon place names as clues to its existence, until its chance discovery through aerial photography in 1949. Only four miles of the road's original 39 miles remain in use.<ref name=marg>{{cite book | last=Margary | first=Ivan D. | title=Roman ways in the Weald  | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UzW7AAAACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:OCLC154129547 | publisher=Phoenix house | year=1968 | isbn=0-460-07742-2 |page=}}</ref>

==Discovery==
The existence of this road was unknown until 1949 when the archaeological division of the [[Ordnance Survey]], while examining aerial photographs of the [[Milland]] area, noticed earthworks the size and shape of a Roman ''mansio'', similar to those on [[Stane Street (Chichester)|Stane Street]] at [[Hardham]] and Alfoldean.<ref name=marg/> Because the ''mansio'' stood on the shortest of the road's alignments this gave few clues to the overall route, and much further investigation of aerial photographs and remains on the ground was needed to establish the whole route.<ref name=marg/><ref name=Ptsfdmuseum>[http://www.petersfieldmuseum.hampshire.org.uk/html/history/roman.html Petersfield Museum-section on roads] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090804101322/http://www.petersfieldmuseum.hampshire.org.uk/html/history/roman.html |date=August 4, 2009 }}</ref>

Too little is known to date ther road, but it must be later than the Winchester to Silchester road, which it joins.<ref name=marg/>

==Design and construction==
A single alignment between the two cities would have taken the road across many feeder streams of the [[River Rother (Arun)|River Rother]], crossing the river itself twice. A more easterly route was therefore taken using four alignments of straight sections of route, which crossed the Rother once at [[Iping]] and joined the [[Winchester]] to Silchester road about one mile south of Silchester, avoiding two stream crossings close to that city.

The road was wider than average for Britain and well constructed, with a layer of flint or gravel on a cambered ''agger''. A section excavated at [[Milland]] had a 2 to 3-inch layer of gravel on a substantial cambered foundation.<ref name=marg/>

==Margary number==
Ivan Margary gave the road the Margary number '155' in his identification system for [[Roman road]]s in Britain.<ref name=marg/>

==The route==
===Chichester to West Lavant===
Whether by chance or not the road starts from Chichester's north gate ({{wmap|50.840|-0.779|zoom=14}}) on an alignment aimed directly at Silchester. It is not known if this was planned or if it followed an existing Iron Age track to [[Bow Hill, Sussex|Bow Hill]] that happened to go in that direction.<ref name=marg/>

===West Lavant to Dunner Hill===
[[File:Linch Down Roman road 3.JPG|left|thumb|200px|Eroded terraceway near the top of Linch Down]]
At East Broyle Copse the road turns north on an alignment to Dunner Hill. It runs on or close to Brandy Hole Lane and passes on the west side of Lavant House School, from where Two Barns Lane runs upon it for about half a mile. Running up to Heathbarn Down, Margary found hedgerows on the line north of Binderton House and north from Henbush Copse. On the down the ''agger'' could be seen both on aerial photographs and on the ground, with outer ditches 60 feet apart. Undetectable past Hylters Farm, a slight ''agger'' is visible on Stapleash Down, then as a terraceway descending the down, the line passes east of Staple Ash Farm, then enters a wood called "The Ditches" where it can be traced as an ''agger'' then a terrace, then an ''agger'' again, as much as 30 feet wide with a lot of flint. In Linchball Wood the road curves a little to the east on a slight ''agger'', just inside the western boundary of the wood, followed by a parish boundary, reaching its highest point at 712 feet. Here there are commanding views north across the Western Weald and south to Chichester and the coast.

After crossing the ridgeway track, now the [[South Downs Way]] the road descends the scarp slope of the Linch Down in a northeasterly direction as an eroded terraceway, and lower down turns northward as a deep hollow way, as it descends to Linch Farm, where there is an old chapel site. This line makes use of a northward spur of chalk. From here the road is followed by the farm track for some 500m before disappearing into the cultivated fields. The road can be found again along the west edge of Haccott's Copse, from where it passes east of Fitzhall to Fitzhall Heath where it passes between ''tumuli'' as a prominent ''agger''. The road continues across [[Iping Common]] as an ''agger'' with ditches 60 feet apart, then a hollow, to cross the A272 road before running as a slight terrace along the west edge of Crowshole Copse to the [[River Rother (Arun)|River Rother]]. North of the river the road line crosses open fields before being followed by a hedge north of Hammer Lane; then an ''agger'' is visible in Captain's Wood before Iping Lane briefly follows it at Stubbhill Farm. The road then follows a terraceway up Dunner Hill, then descending by a zig-zag.<ref name=marg/>

===Dunner Hill to Weavers Down===
[[File:Mansio at Milland 3.JPG|right|thumb|200px|A house standing within the ''mansio'' boundary banks]]
After zig-zagging down Dunner Hill the next alignment to Weavers Down begins. Traces of ''agger'' across Iping Marsh lead to the ''mansio'' site at Weston's Farm.<ref name="Ptsfdmuseum"/> This was slightly smaller than the sites on Stane Street at Hardham and Alfoldean. The road is then in modern use through [[Milland]] to at least the northern end of the straight section, from where the line is uncertain until it can be found as a cutting, then a substantial causeway, at Chapel Common. Passing southwest of Hutfield Copse, the road crosses the [[Sussex Border Path]] and soon enters the army training area at Weavers Down, with traces of an ''agger'' with side ditches running up to the crest of the hill, which is crossed on an eroded terrace.<ref name=marg/>

===Weavers Hill to Silchester===
The road forms the central track of Longmoor Military Camp, then north of the A3 road passes west of Woolmer Pond near Greatham, with an alignment change as it crosses the A325 road. It then passes through the western edge of [[Blackmoor, Hampshire|Blackmoor]] and continues northwest through Binswood to cross the B3004 road east of [[East Worldham, Hampshire|East Worldham]], then crosses Wyck Lane not far from the site of a Roman building near Wyck Place. The road passes through [[Upton Grey]], east of [[Old Basing]], then through [[Bramley, Hampshire|Bramley]], before joining the Winchester to Silchester road ({{wmap|51.354|-1.1|zoom=14}}).

In eastern Hampshire the road passed through a Roman wine-growing area, and was close to [[Alice Holt Forest]], where pottery was produced on an industrial scale in Roman times. Alice Holt pottery has been found along the Sussex and Hampshire coast.<ref name=marg/><ref>[http://www.aliceholt.org/roman_history_of_alice_holt_forest.htm Alice Holt in the Roman Period-aliceholt.org]</ref>

==Outside links==
{{commons|Chichester to Silchester Roman road}}
*[http://keithbriggs.info/images/Roman_roads_Margary_fig1.png A map of the known Roman road network in south east Britain] using the Margary numbering system by Keith Briggs. (Chichester to Silchester number 155)

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Roman roads]]