Roman road from Cosh's Farm to Rumberry Hill (EHER 3890)

A section of Roman road runs from Cash's Farm to Rumberry Hill.

Roman road section from Cash's Farm to Rumberry Hill. Walked February 1981, banks and ditches in good condition. Used mainly by horses. Rest in good condition as at 1981.<1> <2> This road is found as a lane and parish boundary near Brent Pelham (Hertfordshire) 4 miles from Braughing and again near Cooper's End in Elmdon, all in a straight line pointing to Braughing. Parish boundaries and a lane carry it on to Elmdon Lee and to Strethall, with a slight change in direction whence after a gap a lane and parish boundary take it to just north of Chesterford Station. <3> - <7> The road, at TL 4690 3645 was excavated first by the owner and later by 'three archaeologists' during construction of a private wild fowl reserve and coarse fishery. The road was 16ft wide, paved with flat stones, topped by compacted gravel, resting on a deep stone foundation. Drainage ditches on either side c6ft deep. Part of the road is now below a lake. Site Assessment: Excavated section-part now below lake. <8> <9> OS card states: although I was unable to establish the width of the road I did observe that the strata do not occur 20 yards away either up or down stream and there for almost certainly were unnatural. The opposite bank is covered with tree roots and vegetation and it was impossible to find the strata on this side. There are absolutely no traces of the two alternate courses of the road marked 1A and 1B and the find mentioned above makes it extremely unlikely that they ever existed. Probable course as C.W. Philips central line. <10> 1998. Fieldwalking Fieldwalking on the route of the proposed pipeline took place in February 1998 followed by a watching brief of topsoil stripping and excavation on archaeological deposits encountered. Site 8 No archaeological features revealed. <11> See also: <12> <13> Information from NRHE: A road with a good middle section and obvious termini at Braughing and Great Chesterford. Margary suggests a continuation northward from Great Chesterford to Worsted Lodge, where the road would have joined two other known roads (RR 24 and RR 333) at a cross-roads junction. [See OS Linear Archive for bibliography to 1978, air photo coverage, and field investigation reports from 1975, 1977 and 1978]. See also EHER 4744 <14>