Historian Peter Laurie is appealing to local farmers and landowners to help him in his search to find Roman roads in West Dorset. Founder of the Dorset Roman Conquest Group, which is finding evidence of the Roman occupation in the area, he is looking for culverts that were built by the Romans.
He has a theory that culverts are one way of identifying the route of Roman roads. They were built by Roman engineers but not constructed again until the development of turnpike roads many centuries later.
So really old culverts, such as the ones he has found on the B3162 between Bridport and Chard, suggest that this is an old Roman road. If anyone knows of something like this, could they please let him know? Big ones are about 3 ft high and 2 ft wide at the bottom, while smaller ones are about 15 inches wide and high. E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Peter Laurie first became interested in the subject when he came across what might be a Roman road between Symondsbury and Quarry Cross. He gave a talk on tracing Roman roads in West Dorset at the June meeting of Bridport & District U3A held at the Christian Fellowship Hall, East Street, Bridport.
Bob Ayers will give a talk entitled ‘2000 years of the City of London in 40 minutes’ at the meeting on 24 August at 2.00 p.m.
