novionews

NOVIOMAGO - WHERE IS IT


An Article appeared in Sunday Telegraph on 30 July 2000 about Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit's discovery of 'Noviomagus' near West Wickham on the Roman Road to Lewes, and also the Roman road Mr. Philp has found from this town to Vagniacis (Springhead) to the Antonine Itinerary. He stated that the new road crosses the River Cray near Fordcroft Road, St. Mary Cray. The article seemed so vague on any other references to Noviomagus (Noviomago) that I sent the following letter to the Sunday Telegraph the next day and tried out my E-Mail skills. I had a quick reply on E-mail, which looked an automatic reply, within a minute and a letter dated 10 August 2000 thanking me for the letter and a copy had been passed to Mr. Brian Philp, Best wishes from Dominic Lawson, Editor.

The Editor
The Sunday Telegraph
1 Canada Square
London E14 5DT
Dear Sir,
Your article of the finding of a Romano-British village south of London near West Wickham, Kent and calling it by the Roman unknown whereabouts place name of Noviomagus is a very egocentric answer to a long sought conundrum and on the wrong Roman road. There is no mention of the other possibilities on Watling Street in the article.

The Museum of London has Noviomagus as Crayford on their display map of Roman London as was proposed late in the 19th Century when 'villas' were found on the outskirts of the town.
Dartford has also been proposed as Roman buildings have been found in the town. We know there was a place called Noviomagus as it appeared in the list of distances throughout the Roman Empire called the Antonine Itineraries. The lists were used by Empire officials, tax collectors, and government agents and they show distances between places on the main roads throughout the provincies. Itinerary III shows 27 Roman miles between Londinium and Durobrovis. As a Roman mile is equivalent to 1618 yards or 0.919 English miles then 12 Roman miles is slightly over 11 English miles. Using National Grid references, the actual distance from the south gate of Roman London (or London Bridge) TQ 328 803 and the west gate of Durobrovis (Rochester) TQ 742 688 is 26.7 English miles or 29.0 Roman miles. But that is direct and ignoring the bend in the River Thames at Greenwich and skirting south to Deptford to cross the River Ravensbourne.

Itinerary II is the schedule creating the problems with Noviomagus, called Noviomago on both known copies which show a total of 37 (or 38) Roman miles from Londinium to Duobrovis as thus:- Londinium - Noviomago x (10)
Noviomago - Vagniacis xviiii (19)
Vagniacis - Durobrovis viiii ( 9)

Vagniacis is Springhead, SW of Northfleet, at the spring line in the Ebbsfleet Valley near where the new Union Rail will sweep down to join with the Connex South East rail network before going under the River Thames bound for North London. The distance from Springhead to Rochester is 8 English miles, or just under 9 Roman miles, which equates with the Itinerary. There is another Wickham in West Kent, East Wickham. The Wickham derivative is usually taken to refer to a native settlement next to a Roman town. The hamlet, and old parish, is half a mile north of the Roman Watling Street and now part of Welling. On the early editions of the Ordnance Survey maps when the whole area was open fields, it is shown as having straight boundaries on the southern and eastern side of the parish. These straight boundaries are explained in a charter showing the grant of land called Bixle (Bexley) by Cenwulf, King of the Mercians to Uulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury in 814AD. This is in the short time that Mercia controlled Kent and one of a series of charters between these two men concerning lands in the country before Wessex overran Mercia from 825 AD.

The charter states in Anglo Saxon, in this part :-
OF THAM BURNAN ANDLANG HAGAN UN CASINCSTRAETE
EAST ANDLANG STRAETE ON SCOFFOCCES SAE
THANON NORTH ANDLANG STRAETE OTH LYTLANLEA

Or in English:-
From the stream along the hedge to Casincgstraete
East along street to Scoffocces Marsh
Then north along street to Little Lea.

The area stated on the charter is at the head if a valley where springs still occur but now channelled as the whole area has been built on, except the low lying area in the north part of Danson Park, south of the road, known here as Scoffocces Sae. Casincgstraete is the Saxon name for Watling Street in this area now Welling High Street and Park View Road, the unnamed street is now Gipsy Road in Welling which went due north down Knee Hill, Abbey Wood and Harrow Manorway out to the River Thames.

In this area there has been found four sets of Roman cremation burials, all near the present Park View Road, in 1829, 1842, 1938 and latterly in 1989 when Brian Philp and the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit found a series of burials just south of the road, ("Roman settlement at Welling", Garrod and Philp KARU 1992) with pottery and coins covering almost a full span of the Roman period. As Romans were buried usually outside the towns along the main road, the settlement must be nearby.

This area is 10 - 11 Roman miles from Londinium and 10 -11 Roman miles from Vagniaci. One idea suggested for the difference between the 29 Roman miles and the 27 stated on the Antonine Itinerary III is that the distances were only counted from the edges or gates of the settlements - hence the discrepancy. Welling is now definitely accredited as a Roman settlement, has a straight road connection with the River Thames but has never been looked for here due to the whole area being heavily suburbanised in the 1930's and later.

It does however meet the ten Roman mile criteria of the Antonine Itinerary II. I did read somewhere, but cannot remember where, that the copies known had distances which were over a fold of the page on the copy of the Itinerary, and the copying scribe may have been misled by the crease, and given the distance from Noviomago to Vagniaci a problem for future generations.

Yours sincerely
John R. M. Acworth, Treasurer / Archivist / Researcher, Bexley Archaeological Group

I had the following reply from the

Mr. Malcolm King is not shown on the committee of KARU as listed in the above publication. His note above ignores the fact that not much has been dug up at Welling to promote a town anyway. Also the distance from West Wickham to Vagniaci is only 14.5 English or 16 Roman miles.

The road would have continued south along the river terrace to Fordcroft. We need to find earlier maps of the whole area to see if there is an older track.

I am grateful to Mr. Philp for giving me an idea that made me look at the First Edition, Ordnance Survey of 1805, to follow up these lateral thoughts. If Noviomago is to the north of the Park View / Gipsy Road junction i.e. east of the burials found at Welling, then the following may apply:-

· There may be Roman buildings under Crook Log Sports centre open space.
· There could be a Roman road running south from here to Penhill and Foots Cray.
· Probable reason for original Foots Cray village site north of Maidstone Road


John Acworth
August 2000.