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Roman roads in the Vale

Two Roman roads define the boundaries of the Vale. In addition to the Fosse Way (Margary 5) to the west a prehistoric transhumance route used by the Romans (Margary 58a) and still known as the Salters Way runs roughly east-west from Barrow on Soar, crossing the Fosse at Six Hills, then following the Belvoir escarpment to the Iron Age and Roman ironworking operations at Goadby Marwood before heading to Croxton Kerrial, skirting south of Grantham, and then forming the modern A52 towards Boston and Kings Lynn.

A third Roman route, also likely to have been prehistoric in origin, cuts through the Vale running almost exactly north-south from Margidunum (Bingham) to Harby and thence via Pasture Lane near Hose to Melton Mowbray and then on to Burrough on the Hill, Tilton on the Hill and eventually Market Harborough (where there was possibly a Roman small town) in the south of Leicestershire, crossing the Gartree Road (Margary 57a) just north of Market Harborough.

In the thirteenth century the Harby to Melton section of this north-south route through the Vale was referred to as Ferdgate, meaning 'military road'. Some of this route is still in full use although from the Belvoir escarpment to Melton it is now a bridleway. In this video I describe in more detail this north-south route. I have subsequently prepared a detailed account of this whole route.

Ermine Street (now the A1) runs a few miles to the east of the Vale.


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www.hoap.co.uk/chronicle


Chronicle entries

home page

what's new?

the geology of the Vale

the boundaries and rivers of the Vale

long, long ago

long ago

not that long ago

seems like yesterday


researching and writing local history

  • the Vale as a verb
  • getting started free advice from 2005
  • asking curious questions (YouTube video)


    local history groups in and around the Vale

  • Aslockton (Cranmer LHG)
  • Bingham Heritage Trails Association
  • Bottesford
  • Eastwell
  • Harby
  • Harlaxton
  • Hickling
  • Redmile archive
  • Belvoir Villages History and Memories Group
  • Belvoir Angel Society
  • Grantham Canal Society


    you may also be interested in

    free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw

  • Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire
  • How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way
  • Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire
  • Conversations in Churchyards
  • Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland

    Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel

  • Introduction to medieval carvings
  • Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings
  • How Anglo-Saxons found their way
  • Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords
  • Meetings at triangles
  • Rota's Land and Franni's Land
  • Reading Romanesque fonts
  • Church and manor
  • The significances of square headdresses
  • Early churches and waterborne trade
  • Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes
  • Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire
  • Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire
  • Salt ways in Leicestershire
  • Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town'
  • Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture
  • Nottinghamshire's earliest churches
  • Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th
  • Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places?

    Barrowby Until Now website

    Rutland Village by Village website

    Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland