Watling Street

Watling Street, one of the great Roman highways of Britain, commencing at Dover, passing through Canterbury and Rochester to London, and thence to Chester and York, and northwards in two branches to Carlisle and the Wall in the neighbourhood of Newcastle. Traces of the ancient road are still to be found in many parts of its course, and in some it is still an important highway; a street in London retains its name. It was the line of division in the treaty between Alfred and Guthrum the Dane, and it is still the boundary between Warwickshire and Leicestershire. Of the 'Watlings' nothing is now remembered. Perhaps a trace also survives in the name Wattlesborough, a place on Watling Street near Wroxeter (Uriconium).