Summary

Roman paved ford, 154m ESE of Stream Cottage

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 19 June 2014. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes the remains of a Roman paved ford crossing a stream on the course of a Roman road. It is situated at the foot of a stream valley near Stream Farm, NNW of Iden Green on the High Weald.

The Roman ford is built of large, roughly squared, sandstone blocks and is about 4m wide. The stones are about 0.1m to 0.2m thick and range in size; the smallest being about 0.4m by 0.3m in area and the largest 0.9m by 0.6m. In the mid 20th century a wooden post was recorded lying horizontally under the top surface of paving on the north side. A hundred boundary stone has been inserted in the pavement at a later date.

The ford was partially excavated in 1935 and 1980-3. Some stones have been removed for secondary use in the past. As the paved area crosses the Roman road at Iden Green it has been suggested that it was used as a pedestrian causeway next to the Roman road.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

A ford is a shallow place in a river or other stretch of water, where people, animals and vehicles may cross. Fords were sometimes paved in the Roman period to aid the crossing of pedestrians, horses and carts. There are few known examples of surviving paved fords in Britain, although many more have been identified elsewhere across the Roman Empire. Paved fords are significant component features of Roman roads. Roman roads were artificially made-up routes introduced to Britain by the Roman army from c.AD 43. They facilitated both the conquest of the province and its subsequent administration. Their main purpose was to serve the Cursus Publicus, or Imperial mail service. Although a number of roads fell out of use soon after the withdrawal of Rome from the province in the fifth century AD, many have continued in use down to the present day and are consequently sealed beneath modern roads.

Despite some damage and removal of stones in the past, the Roman paved ford 154m ESE of Stream Cottage survives comparatively well. It is a rare survival of its type in Britain. The paved ford is a significant representative of Roman civil engineering skill involved in the construction of Roman roads, and will contain aracheological information and environmental evidence relating to the paved ford and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Kent HER TQ 83 SW 6. NMR TQ 83 SW 6, LINEAR 342. PastScape 417668, 1042732,

Source: Historic England