Roman Roads

7.1. Map 3b

The first road to cross our district, probably passing quite close to the site of the schools, was of Roman construction. It went from a junction near the Uni-versity gates to Pennocrucium on the Watling Street, at Stretton near Penkridge. The existence of this road has been proved at its northern end, while the align-ment of the Roman camp at Metchley perhaps indicates the line of the southern part. No trace of it has been found : its gravel surface has long since broken up. It is tempting to claim that Rotton Park's south end, which is certainly ancient, fol-lows the line of the road, but it is doubtful that this can ever be proved.

More is known of the road now called Ryknild Street. (Variant spellings. All road names herein are Saxon or later). The Roman advance had stopped short of the great forested triangle between Avon, Severn, and Trent : the Fossway had been made along what was probably intended to be the frontier of Roman Britain. But tribal attacks from the unconquered highland zone obliged the legions to undertake further campaigns. The advance was made along the line of Watling Street, and a road was pushed north through the middle of the Plateau to join it, from Bourton on-the-Water to Wall near Lichfield.

Entering what is now the city of Birmingham east of Kings Norton village, it crossed the Rea at Lifford and continued (via Lifford Lane and Stirchley Street) to a sighting point on high ground at Selly Park. Thence it descended, perhaps by Bournbrook Road, to a crossing of Bourn Brook at or near the point where a later road came in from the south-west (Bris-tol Road). Overlooking the valley, on a road going north-west, was built a camp for 3000 men (see below).

Beyond Bourn Brook the line of Ryknild Street is lost. It probably went via Toy Lane (a vanished lane north from the University gates) and Edgbaston Park Road, close to the line of Wheeleys Road and Lane, just west of the Canal Basin off Broad Street, along the line of Great Hampton Row and Wheeler Street, Stoneleigh Road and Wellhead Lane to the Old Ford (Holford today) on the Tame, thence along Kingstanding Road. In Sutton Park the Roman road is visible, though untended for 1500 years. If ever it had the paved surface of a first-class road (via munita), this has long since crumbled away : made of soft local sandstone like that which provides the easily-worn stonework of our schools, it would not long survive. More likely it had a surface of graded gravel layers. It is seen to be a raised and cambered 'agger', once about 25 feet wide, without the deep ditches that were ne-cessary across the water-holding clay of Arden.

When in later times there was a general breakdown of trade and the Romano-British towns were abandoned, the roads that linked them were often lost. Low sec-tions sank, timber rafts over bogs rotted away, ford pavements broke up, and brid-ges collapsed. Succeeding tracks found drier routes, and unused stretches of road became overgrown. So it is not surprising that we can find no trace of 'our' road.