Portway: An Ancient Road Between Silchester and Old Sarum
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Classical
- Eras represented
- Classical
- Civilizations
- Roman
- Site type
- Infrastructure
- Remains
- Road
On this page10 sections
History
Portway is an ancient road between Silchester and Old Sarum, passing near Grateley in the United Kingdom. It may have existed before the Roman occupation of Britain, though it is closely associated with the Roman period. Calleva Atrebatum, or Silchester, was the principal town of the Atrebates, a people of Iron Age and Roman Britain; Sorbiodunum, or Old Sarum, was the other end of the road. The name Portway is Anglo-Saxon and refers to a road connecting market towns.
Part of the Roman road network
In the Roman period, Portway connected with routes that made up a longer journey between London and Exeter. The name is sometimes applied to that whole route, but properly refers to the section between Calleva and Sorbiodunum. At Calleva it met the road to London known as the Devil’s Highway, as well as roads toward Bath and Gloucester. Beyond Sorbiodunum, the route continued as Ackling Dyke toward Badbury Rings, then onward to Dorchester, a Roman settlement near Axminster, and Exeter.
The Antonine Itinerary, a Roman listing of routes and distances, includes both Calleva and Sorbiodunum in its fifteenth route. It gives 55 Roman miles between them by way of Vindomis and Venta Belgarum, or Winchester, rather than along Portway’s direct course. At East Anton, Portway crossed a road connecting Winchester with Cunetio, near Mildenhall. This crossing is sometimes associated with the Icknield Way.
East Anton and the location of Vindomis
A small settlement may have developed at the East Anton crossroads after the roads were built. Francis J. Haverfield rejected the idea that it grew into a settled community. About a mile east of the crossing, a Roman roadside station has been proposed as Vindomis. Richard Colt Hoare identified it with that settlement, and Charles Roach Smith considered its distance from Calleva consistent with the itinerary. Other proposed locations for Vindomis include near Farnham and the area around Neatham, near Alton. The East Anton settlement may instead have been Leucomagus. Both names refer to Roman settlements whose precise locations remain debated.
Route identification and later study
The point where Portway left Calleva has also been disputed. Ivan Margary and Thomas Codrington placed it on the town’s west side. Margary favoured the Lower West Gate, while the main West Gate was another possibility. Colt Hoare proposed a branch from the road to Winchester just beyond the South Gate. An 1846 article supported his interpretation; later, a 1911 Ordnance Survey map and a 1989 scholarly article favoured a west-side departure, with the latter specifying the Lower West Gate.
Antiquaries and road researchers examined different parts of the route over the following centuries. Henry MacLauchlan described crop traces around Wolverton and Ewhurst in 1851, while Thomas William Shore in 1889 traced the road toward a gate in Calleva’s wall. Codrington regarded the course between Calleva and Cottington Hill as uncertain in 1903, and Margary later noted visible traces around Pamber Forest and nearby farmland. In the 1950s, Margary classified the London–Exeter route as route 4 and Portway as section 4b, measuring the latter at 36¼ miles, approximately 58.3 km. In 1879, about a quarter-mile of road near St Mary Bourne was removed to improve access for farm vehicles.
Excavations along the corridor have identified Roman villas at Balchester, Abbotts Ann, Grateley, Hurstbourne Priors, and Allington, as well as a Roman fort near Balchester. The track through Bradley Wood is a scheduled monument.
Remains
Portway’s surviving alignment is represented by stretches of roadbed and track, lanes, field boundaries, and a ridge. Examined sections reveal a raised road body with a layered surface and flanking ditches. The route ran southwest from Calleva through Pamber Forest and toward Cottington Hill, Quarley Hill, and Sorbiodunum.
Course and surviving alignment
From Cottington Hill, the road continued toward Quarley Hill near the Hampshire–Wiltshire border, then past St Mary Bourne and across the Bourne Rivulet. Farther southwest it crossed the Bourne Valley into Wiltshire and crossed the river between Winterbourne Gunner and Gomeldon. Cottington Hill is described as having a line of sight to Silchester, and Quarley Hill to Old Sarum; Quarley Hill may also have served as an observation point over the road. East of Hannington, the exact course has remained uncertain for more than a century. West of that area, Meadham Lane follows part of the alignment, and the road borders the north side of the straight woodland strip called Caesar’s Belt. A track continues through Bradley Wood, with the route farther on passing beneath farmland.
Other parts of the alignment are followed by Meadham Lane, Finkley Road into East Anton, and the Andover–Monxton road beyond Anton Valley. Around St Mary Bourne, the route sometimes shapes field boundaries. Farther toward Old Sarum, lanes, tracks, and droves follow its line, while the West of England railway runs parallel as far as Idmiston. Near Quarley and Grateley, a ridge along the southern side of a wide green lane may mark the road.
Road construction
A section near St Mary Bourne, examined after its removal, had a hard road surface 4–8 inches below ground level and was about 24 feet wide. At Newton Tony, near the Amesbury branch railway, and at Bradley Wood, the raised road body, or agger, was about 27 feet wide. Its construction included a chalk base, a 3–4-inch layer of flint, and about 12 inches of local gravel. The surface was raised slightly at the centre and measured about 18 cm thick there. V-shaped ditches flanked the road, each about 0.38 m deep and 0.91 m wide. Their centres lay approximately 9.8 m from the southern road edge and 10.4 m from the northern edge, making the full zone between ditch centres about 25.7 m wide.
Earthworks and archaeological sites
Iron Age earthworks and the Silchester Hoard
Near Calleva, Portway crossed an Iron Age earthwork less than 200 yards from the town. The 1985–87 Silchester Hoard of coins and rings was found nearby. The road also passed close to, or crossed, the Flex Ditch, another Iron Age earthwork.
Roadside station, villas, and fort
At East Anton, the road crossed the route between Winchester and Cunetio. A mansio, an official Roman roadside station providing accommodation and services, stood about a mile east of the crossroads. At Sorbiodunum, Portway entered on the town’s eastern side, where it joined route 45a from Winchester. Along the wider corridor, excavations have located Roman villas at Balchester, Abbotts Ann, Grateley, Hurstbourne Priors, and Allington. The Roman fort near Balchester had a circular plan, suggesting that it may have preceded Roman settlement in the area.
