Monument record MDR6932 - Road, Stanage Edge, Outseats

Route from Redmire Reservoir to Dennis Knoll, via Stanage Edge. The current track is presumed medieval in date but has definite Roman antecedents. (1) An old road runs from Dennis Knoll corner, up Stanage Edge to join the Long Causey where it turns to Stanage Pole [see SMR 11348]. It is built of hardcore with traces of gritstone cobbling remaining in parts. The first maps to show this route, as opposed to the earlier Long Causey, is the Inclosure Award plan of 1830. This has led to the erroneous interpretation that the road was built at this time [as described as Authority 1]. It is known that the road from Dennis Knoll corner, that follows the shelf below Stanage Edge to the Callow Bank turnpike bypass of 1758-67 was built in c. 1771 as a branch route of the Penistone to Grindleford turnpike [see SMR 99018]. The sharp change in angle at Dennis Knoll corner, where the other road runs straight on, is a clear indicator that this road up to Stanage Edge was built at the same time as, or before, the 1771 road. Burdett's map of 1762-7 appears to show the Long Causey route [SMR 11348] rather that this route, indicating that the latter was built after 1762 (but before 1771). If this is the case, the re-routing of the Long Causey was undertaken as a further undocumented branch to the turnpike, built to lessen the gradient up Stanage Edge and to avoid marshy ground below the Buck Stone. Two stretches of this route have spuriously been said to have Roman origins [see SMR 11348 also]. It seems highly unlikely that the '1771' road builders, who were laying out a new route that deviated significantly from that followed for centuries [SMR 11348], would accidentally follow a Roman road. Indeed, if a Roman road survived to this date, sufficient to influence a choice of route, then it is equally likely to have been used previously, which is was not. The stretch of road up the Stanage Edge cliff is certainly not Roman, as it rises up the cliff on an 18th century embankment rather than exploiting a naturally 'easy' route. The stretch of road north of Buck Stone was suggested by Wroe [Authority 2] as being on the line of a Roman route, purely on the basis of its closeness to a direct line between the forts at Brough and Templeborough. But given the lack of supporting data, this is not sufficient evidence to postulate a Roman road along this route. The stretch of road running north of Dennis Knoll corner was recorded by the North Derbyshire Archaeological Trust as having a Roman road running alongside it, defined by ditches on either side, but it has since been concluded that these ditches were certainly modern [see SMR 11335]. (3)