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 ROMANO-BRITISH STAFFORDSHIRE Wroxeter. Its course is definite almost throughout its length, being used at the present day as one of the main highways across England. After leaving Viroconium (Wroxeter) it runs to Uxacona (probably Oakengates in Shrop- shire), eleven Roman miles; thence to Pennocrucium (which has been identified with Stretton where the road crosses the River Penk), a distance of twelve Roman miles, which corresponds approximately with the actual distance. The next station from Pennocrucium is Letocetum or Etocetum (Wall), according to the itinerary a distance of twelve Roman miles, which, if the identification of Pennocrucium with Stretton is correct, is too short, the actual distance being about thirteen and a quarter English miles or fifteen Roman miles. A little to the east of Wall Wading Street crosses Rycknield Street. From Letocetum the road runs to Manduessedum (Mancetter in War- wickshire), and so on in a south-easterly direction. Throughout its course in Staffordshire Wading Street runs from point to point in straight lines ; that is to say from Oakengates to Gailey, 2 miles east of Stretton, it runs almost due east and west. From Gailey it turns slightly southward to Wyrley Common and Knaves Castle, and then again turns almost due east and west to Wall. At this point its course is not quite certain, the existing road called Watling Street from the south-east joins the Rycknield Street about three-quarters of a mile south of Wall, but apparently the Roman road turned in a south-easterly direction a quarter of a mile east of Wall, following the line of an existing footpath, and joined the present road at Lawton Grange, continuing in a straight line to Hints. It there takes another turn in a slightly less southerly direction to the county boundary at Fazeley. 1 On the 25-in. Ordnance map the position of a stone to the south-east of Wall is marked which is supposed to indicate the intersection of Watling Street and Rycknield Street. 2. Rycknield or Icknield Street. This road starts from the Fosse at Bourton-on-the- Water in Gloucestershire, running through Alcester and Birmingham, where it enters what is now the county of Stafford. Its course in this county does not exist as a modern road to the south of Kettle House in Perry. From this point it runs for approximately four miles in an almost straight line to the park of Little Aston Hall, and for about two miles of this distance it forms the county boundary. A piece of it, about a quarter of a mile in length, is found slightly to the north at Little Aston, where again it is lost till another small portion of it is apparent at Shenstone in a short straight piece of road about half a mile in length, running from the Waterworks northward towards Chesterfield. Here again it is lost, but it probably crossed Watling Street at the point where the site of a stone before referred to is shown on the Ordnance maps, and thence in a straight line to Knowle Farm, where it changes its direction a little to the east, and continues in a straight line to Branston, where its course is again lost for about two and a half miles. It is, however, found again to the north of Burton-on-Trent, whence it runs in the same straight line to the county boundary, crossing the River Dove at Monks Bridge and keeping a direct course to Derby. At Wichnor Bridges the road was formed on piles over the marshy meadows, and when in 1795 these bridges were destroyed by a flood the road was washed away, leaving the piles exposed. 2 It is of course not wholly certain that these 1 Codrington, Rom. Roads in Britain, 75-6 ; Pitt, Hist. Staffs, i, 3. 1 Stebbing Shaw, Hist. Staffs. , 1 8, 125 ; Pennant, Journey from Chester to London, 121-3. 187