The Romans in Britain

The Romans were famous for their road building. At its most powerful, the Roman Empire had 50,000 miles (80,500km) of well-kept roads connecting Rome to the most distant parts of the Empire. These roads were first made so that Roman soldiers and rulers could move around conquered Britain.

The roads had a ditch either side for drainage. A layer of stones or flints was laid at the bottom with several layers of small stones, gravel and chalk on top. On the best roads, the top surface was stone slabs and on less important roads, it was gravel pressed well down.