This was a bridging point on the Roman road running south from the Cumberland coastal area near Waverbridge towards Pattenfoot, crossing one of the small watercourses (likely the River Waver or a tributary) in the low-lying ground south of the Solway. The road and its associated infrastructure would have been in use from the later 1st century AD, following Agricolan and Hadrianic consolidation of the Cumbrian frontier zone, through to the later 4th century.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The crossing formed part of the lateral and feeder road network supporting the western end of Hadrian's Wall and the Cumberland coastal defences (the Maryport–Bowness system), linking inland routes with the coastal forts and facilitating both military movement and the movement of agricultural produce from the Solway Plain.
Very little is recorded for this specific bridge: no formal excavation report is known to me, and its identification rests on the line of the Roman road traced through the locality rather than on upstanding remains. Comparable minor Roman bridges in Cumbria (e.g. on the Maryport–Carlisle routes) typically used timber superstructures on stone or pile foundations, but no such evidence is published for this particular crossing.
This was a bridging point on the Roman road running south from the Cumberland coastal area near Waverbridge towards Pattenfoot, crossing one of the small watercourses (likely the River Waver or a tributary) in the low-lying ground south of the Solway. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a bridge site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman road, Waverbridge to Pattenfoot is classified as a Roman bridge — a infrastructure 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 Blennerhasset Roman fort, 300m south west of Harbybrow (4.1 km), ‘Maglone’ (4.6 km), Three Romano-British settlements, an irregular aggregate field system, and a bowl barrow on Aughertree Fell (6.6 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 road, Waverbridge to Pattenfoot