A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE piles date so far back as the Roman period. There is no indication of a station between Wall and Derby, a distance of about twenty-four miles, but not being one of the Antonine routes we have little information in this respect regarding it. At Sutton Coldfield, where it forms the boundary between the counties of Stafford and Warwick, it was in 1752 said to be in its original condition, and was described as a very spacious road, not less than sixty feet in breadth, though the surface be in general over-run with heath, and for a short space in the park overspread with oaks of considerable magnitude ... It is formed by gravel and materials on the spot, high raised in the centre, the preservation wonderful owing to its not being a public road.* 3. Road from Derby to Stoke-upon-Trent, This road, which has also been called Rycknield Street, 4 apparently follows an almost straight line from Derby past Rocester to Totmonslow near Draycott-in-the-Moors, and then turns slightly northward to Stoke-upon-Trent, from which point its course is lost. An ancient boulder pavement was found at Stoke-upon-Trent in 1903 ' at the junction of the London Road and High Street which probably formed a part of this road. 4. Probable road from Stretton to the Longford Road. There are indications of a Roman road running apparently from Whitchurch in Shropshire to Stretton, identified as Pennocrucium on Watling Street, which would have formed a short cut to Chester. Certain traces of it are found in the long straight piece of road called the Long Ford, running from Bletchley near Market Drayton to Hinstock in Shropshire. It is here lost for nearly two miles, and then forms the county boundary between Shropshire and Staffordshire for about three miles. Its course is again lost, but it probably passed to the north of Aqualate Mere in Forton parish by Rye Mill to a point near to Longnor Hall, where there is a straight road of about three miles in length which joins Watling Street at Stretton. 6 English antiquaries have often laid down on their maps and in their books a ' Via Devana ' running more or less directly from Colchester by Cambridge and Huntingdon to Leicester, and finally to Chester, the Roman fortress of Deva. There is no evidence of the existence of this supposed 'through-route' across Britain, and the name ' Via Devana' is a modern invention. Parts of the route may be accepted as independent roads of really Roman origin, 7 and it has been suggested that this way crossed Staffordshire from Burton-upon-Trent, through Needwood Forest to Uttoxeter, thence to Longton and Chesterton, and so on to Chester. There does not seem, how- ever, to be any evidence of this road in the county. 8 Other supposed Roman roads are one from Wroxeter to Chesterton, and another from Chester to Chesterton. The existence of these roads has been suggested by reason of the identification of Chesterton with the Antonine station of Mediolanum, mentioned in the second and tenth itineraries. But the exact site of Mediolanum referred to in the second itinerary is quite J Stebbing Shaw, Hist. Staffs, i, 1 8. For the name of the road, Rycknield or Icknield Street, see Professor Haverfield's notes in V.H.C. Warw. i, 241 ; V.C.H. Derb. i, 245-6. 4 Molyneux, Journ. Brit. Arch. Asioc. xxix, 288 ; f.C.H. Derb. i, 246. 1 North Staffs. Field Club, xxxviii, 159. ' See y.C.H. Shrops. i, section on Roman roads, for a further account. 1 y.C.H. Northants. i, 207. 1 Molyneux, Journ. Brit. Arch. Asm. xxix, 288. 188
