Roman cadastres in Britain. II. Eastearn A.Signs of a large System in the northern English home counties

Abstract

Since 1918 at least seven investigators have observed regularly arranged, similarly oriented, landscape features in various parts of the northern English home counties. The earlier reports suggested that this was evidence of Roman centuriation; but now such landscapes are thought to derive from slightly irregular land planning, of late Iron Age or early Roman date, which was not based strictly on Roman models. Nevertheless, it can be shown that a large proportion of these landscape elements relate to a single hypothetical grid of squares with module 710 m and orientation N 17.088° W. Hence, it is possible that they could be derived from one large centuriated Roman cadastre. This idea is supported by the discovery of several segments of Roman road which are linked to the grid obliquely and appear to have been planned from it. Such a model can explain the location of Roman and later features. It can also be used to predict the probable existence or location of unknown or unrecognised features of the Roman period. Such predictions could be used to test the hypothesis and to determine the extent of the system.