Further work ….

  • Is it possible to trace any location for the ‘Cranoe Salter’s Way’ (mentioned in Hill, J ‘Medbourne Tessellated Pavement’ in TLAHS Vol 5 (1875-81) at p70)?
  • Revisit ROLLR and closely re-read the Glooston and Slawston enclosure documents to see if there’s any mention of any pre-exisiting (roman) trackway in the descriptions of the new field layouts, in particular in the Slawston award.
  • Access and availability of old maps and ‘layering’ software has improved beyond all recognition since Turville’s thesis (2013).  Is it time to restart a long term programme of systematic searching? – plan route options, obtain access permissions, a programme of field walking and test pitting / larger excavations to fit in with crop rotation and sowing timetables, perhaps even enthusing local landowners (see ‘Rutland Mosaic’?)
  • How about a test pit / trench at SP 786934 – Gartree Road crosses the Medbourne – Slawston parish boundary at this point and there’s a distinct ‘kink’ in the parish line, which coincides with a hedgeline; the physically surveyed track stops dead here on the 1885 25” map.  Had it already been ploughed out in Medbourne parish?
  • Have a look at the field names in Glooston, Slawston and Medbourne parishes, to see if there’s any reference to an old track or hedge line or boundary.
  • Have a closer look at parish boundaries and this route; also parish boundaries and the other Roman roads in Leicestershire. How do the parish boundaries seem to interact with the routes? The Gartree Road seems to be a ‘hook’ in the landscape for parish boundaries that cross the route, particularly Stonton Wyville – Glooston and Slawston – Medbourne. Are there others? (Yes; at least one, without looking too hard or too methodically – approx 1/2 mile NW of Cottingham – definitely need to look for others. This may be a very fruitful line of enquiry.)
  • The Glooston Villa wasn’t directly on the route of the roman road. Is this common, or rare? Is there a ‘standard’ distance from a roman road for other Leicestershire villas, and villas in other counties? Is there any evidence of a ‘standard’ estate size, or consequent villa spacing in the landscape? If there is a ‘standard’, can it be used to suggest ‘missing’ unexcavated villas?
  • The course of the Roman Road from Leicester to Mancetter (Margery 57b) is pretty much established, but with gaps (in particular between Kirby Muxloe and Leicester – see ‘Roman Road from Leicester to Mancetter’ by A D McWhirr, TLAHS Vol XLII – can the clues about the Gartree Road be applied to the course of that road? (McWhirr notes that ‘it is not unusual for Roman roads suddenly to change direction close to towns’.)