Monument record MDR11325 - Possible Roman Road (conjectural route of), Ibstock (Leicestershire) to Ryknield Street (Staffshire), South Derbyshire

The course of a possible Roman road has been identified running from Ibstock in Leicestershire to Ryknield Street in Staffordshire. The road presumably continues south-east to Leicester. A section of the road was first noted in the Moira area of Ashby Woulds parish, Leics, where a linear cropmark was visible on aerial photographs taken in 1969. The alignment was plotted onto the Leicestershire Sites and Monuments Record landscape maps and then extended in each direction. To the west-north-west a series of tracks, footpaths and parish boundaries were noted that followed the alignment of the cropmark for over 10km across Derbyshire and into Staffordshire, to meet Ryknield Street more or less at right-angles. At the point where the line crosses the Trent there is a rectangular cropmark with rounded corners that may be a Roman fort [SMR 27501]. Three specific observations were made in Derbyshire where features appear to follow the alignment: 1) the parish boundary between Drakelow and Walton-on-Trent (1200m); 2) the southern edge of Grove Wood and track, Drakelow (800m); 3) the track passing Ashleigh House and Hill Crest Farm, Cauldwell (1600m). (1)