Dean Green Team

Wildlife Conservation Group in the

Forest of Dean

Gloucestershire

9 July 2024

Old 'Roman' Road, Blackpool Bridge

Grid Ref SO 6563 0936

The search was on to find the Old 'Roman' Road above Blackpool Bridge!

The date of construction of the road was long assigned to the Roman period on the basis that a distinctive paving and kerbing seen by antiquarians at various locations indicated an early construction period. However, The Roman dating was doubted as early as 1968. During February and March 1985, members of the Forest of Dean Local History Society undertook the excavation of a small section of the road. The charcoal deposit recovered from beneath the road was subsequently radiocarbon dated to the post-medieval period.

More information can be found here:- Heritage Gateway

	The old road was well smothered by the foliage!
	Starting to clear the way on both sides of the road.
	Clear side paving is exposed. The road travels up the hill from Blackpool Bridge towards Soudley. The paved road maintains a regular width of 2.2m. No Roman road is this narrow except perhaps in the wild parts of Wales.The construction, of cobblestones, small boulders and stones upon a soil base, between long, narrow, upstanding kerbstones is completely un-Romanlike. The conclusion to be reached must be that the paved stretch of the road represent sections improved in the late C18th, when wheeled traffic took over from packhorse traffic.