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The course of the Roman road between the two great cities of Londinium (London) and Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) has been known for a very long time - all except one small section, between Sunningdale and the Roman bridge site at Staines (Ad Pontes). Various people tried to find it, including the historian Frederic Turner and Lieutenant (later Sir George) Gray in 1835 while at Sandhurst, but to no avail - it was just not where it was expected to be.

Then in 1964, David Barker (then a schoolboy, now a local historian) found a bank at the bottom of the garden where he was living then in Egham, and digging into it found some Roman and Bronze Age pottery. The bank could be seen to be pointing towards the end of the Egham Causeway, so was presumed to be an extension of that - but at an angle to it, pointing south-west. More importantly, in the other direction it pointed directly towards, and in alignment with, the known road at Sunningdale. So the possibility arose that the Silchester road ran from Sunningdale north-easterly to Egham, then along the Causeway to the Roman bridge point at Staines. The Causeway (assumed to be medieval because of records of its building then) could thus, as the Historic Environment Record says, be the Roman road remade in medieval times. This is why the road was not found before - it was assumed to go straight to Staines, which it does not.

Also, there is a stone in Stroude Road, Egham, near Great Fosters hotel, which is inscribed with a statement that a Roman road runs in the adjoining meadow. Frederic Turner said it is too far south to be the Silchester road, but could be part of a branch road. A map of 1802 published in "Echoes of Egham" (coincidentally published by David Barker) shows a footpath going southwards from Egham Church which would if extended go past the stone. It would then go through the moat behind Great Fosters hotel (older than the sixteenth century building) to a point on Stroude Road where there is a right-angled banking. The bank can then be followed along this field boundary and (with some breaks) all the way to Thorpe (where there is evidence for Roman buildings) and nearly to Chertsey.

This on-line museum is based on the evidence for these two roads, and a Roman presence in the area. All the exhibits are accessible from the interactive map.

Jim Goddard

Jesus and Uxella A number of books have been written on the journey to Britain of Jesus when a teenager, but one possible landing place - Puriton, on the River Parrett in Somerset - seems to have been overlooked. It may also be the lost Roman town of Uxella.

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