Monument record 8675/3 - Roman road surface and drain at Gorsestacks

<1> Earthworks Archaeological Services, 2017, New Bus Interchange Site at Gorse Stacks. A final report on the Archaeological Excavations 2015-2016 (Client Report). SCH8440.

Excavation at Gorsestacks in 2015/16 identified 3 areas of Roman road surface. (Road 1) was aligned north-east to south-west and may have acted as both the demarcation for the zone of clay quarrying and a route for the transportation of the clay extracted. A drain, lined on both sides with sandstone masonry cutting through this feature and deposits over these feature with late 2nd century pottery indicate the road was not maintained by this date.

In area 2, a metalled surface (Road 2), encountered at the level of the natural clay, has been tentatively assigned to this phase also, although the extent and dating of this surface do remain uncertain.

Additionally, traces of a metalled surface (Road 3), seemingly following a general north-west to south-east alignment, were encountered beneath George Street and Gorse Stacks during the watching brief held during the installation of the new service trench.

Although as yet unproven, it is entirely possible that Roads 2 and 3 represent elements of a single, if not contemporaneous, route perhaps joined by Road 1 from the north-east.

Therefore, when considered together, these surfaces allow local communication routes to be postulated within the extramural settlement to the north-east of the legionary fortress during the late 1st- to early 2nd-century AD.e