Blackpool Bridge lies in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, on a route long identified as a Roman road linking the iron-working districts of the Dean with the Severn crossings and the road network around Lydney and Mitcheldean. A short stretch of paved surface here, with kerbstones and a cambered cobbled metalling, has traditionally been pointed to as the best-preserved exposed Roman road surface in the region, though its dating has been questioned and a medieval or later date for the visible paving is now considered possible.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The route served the extraction and movement of iron ore and bloom from Dean's numerous Roman-period workings — one of the most productive iron-producing landscapes in Britain — connecting them with the temple complex at Lydney Park, the small town at Weston-under-Penyard (Ariconium), and the Severn estuary. The "bridge" element of the name refers to a crossing of the Blackpool Brook on this line.
No modern excavation of the bridge itself is recorded, and no Roman structural masonry survives in situ; the site is known chiefly from antiquarian observation and from the exposed paved section, while Roman activity in the immediate landscape is attested by iron-working slag scatters and bloomery sites in the surrounding Forest. The Roman attribution of the visible paving rests on tradition rather than secure stratified evidence.
Blackpool Bridge lies in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, on a route long identified as a Roman road linking the iron-working districts of the Dean with the Severn crossings and the road network around Lydney and Mitcheldean. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a bridge site from the Roman period in Britain.
Section of Roman road at Blackpool Bridge 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 Stone-arched Roman bridge at Blackpool Bridge, incorporated into the Highway Bridge (0.1 km), Camp Hill promontory fort and Romano-British temple complex (7.1 km), Roman Villa at Clearwell Farm (8 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 Section of Roman road at Blackpool Bridge