This 270m section of Roman road on Clay Hill forms part of the well-preserved earthwork known locally as "Roman Ridge" (or "Roman Rig"), running through the area between Doncaster (Danum) and Templeborough in South Yorkshire. The road was in use from the later 1st century AD through the Roman period, linking the auxiliary fort at Templeborough with the fort and small town at Danum, and continuing northwards as part of the route system serving the legionary fortress at York (Eboracum).
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The route was a significant military and supply artery in the network connecting the forts of the Brigantian frontier zone, and later served the civilian settlements (vici) that grew up around these garrisons. The surviving ridged agger here is one of the more visible upstanding stretches of Roman road in South Yorkshire, where modern development has destroyed most comparable lengths.
On Clay Hill the road survives as a pronounced agger with traces of flanking ditches, though no formal excavation of this specific section is recorded in the published literature; knowledge derives mainly from earthwork survey and antiquarian observation. Note that "Roman Ridge" in South Yorkshire is also the name applied to a separate set of linear earthworks of probable Iron Age date, and the two have sometimes been conflated in older sources.
This 270m section of Roman road on Clay Hill forms part of the well-preserved earthwork known locally as "Roman Ridge" (or "Roman Rig"), running through the area between Doncaster (Danum) and Templeborough in South Yorkshire. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman Ridge (Roman road): section 300yds (270m) long on Clay Hill is classified as a Roman site — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Roman Ridge: section 500yds (460m) long, N of Dog Kennel Pond, Wentworth Park (1.1 km), Roman Ridge: section 330yds (300m) long, S of Dog Kennel Pond, Wentworth Park (1.4 km), Roman Ridge (Roman road): section S of Hoober House (1.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Roman Ridge (Roman road): section 300yds (270m) long on Clay Hill