Page:VCH Norfolk 1.djvu/352

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

A HISTORY OF NORFOLK I. Direct road from Colchester to Caister-by-Norwich. This road appears to have coincided largely with the existing high road from Colchester to Norwich. The straightness of that road from Earl Stonham northwards, its frequent use as a parish boundary, the Roman remains found along its course, and the occurrence of names like Stratford St. Mary (on the Stour) and Long Stratton, indicate a Roman road along this line. It enters Norfolk at Scole on the Waveney, where some Roman remains have been discovered and some stonework has been noted in the river which may possibly represent a paved ford. Thence it pro- ceeds through a district empty of Roman traces, often serving as a parish SKETCH MAP To illusWU fioman Hoads in East Suffolk. 1 5 N<,tf>lk •— • • ^oods of uivick tfUca M«nv to cjust ^.. *. HYpotkfttiul Fig. 1 6. boundary, past Long Stratton to the vicinity of Caister. The length of the road from Colchester to Caister is about 50 English miles, and it may conceivably represent, therefore, the second of the two Itinerary routes just mentioned. By that route Colchester is 53 miles from 'Icinos,' and Icinos, as we have before said (p. 286), may be an accusative plural of which the nominative Icini, that is Iceni, might be an abbreviation of Venta Icenorum.^ However the continuation of the route through

  • So Kiepert in his Fortme Urbis Jntijui (Berlin, 1 894). In general his delineation of Roman

roads in Britain is very unsatisfactory in that work, but this view deserves attention. 300