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Saxon viking axe | Anglo Saxon History 
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| Roman Locations that have not been identified
and roads that just terminate
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| Introduction |
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| | Introduction ▲ |
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Roman roads were built to connect settlements, forts, and ports. When a road simply stops — not at a known town or fort, but apparently in the middle of nowhere — it raises an obvious question: what was it heading for?
This page collects examples of Roman roads in Britain and Northern Europe that terminate at locations which make little sense today, but which would have sat directly on the coastline if the high tide level in Roman and early Saxon times was approximately 4 to 5 metres higher than it is now. The implication in each case is the same: the road was heading for a harbour or port that is now either inland, silted up, or lost beneath later sediment.
The evidence for a higher tidal range is set out on the Pevensey and Wash pages, and is now supported by a 2026 paper in the Journal of Coastal Research. This page provides a third, independent line of evidence.
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| Why I am using the high tide/sea level as 4.5 metres higher ▲ |
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I have been working on the translations of Saxon Settlement names for about 20 years now and I think I can explain a lot of the names by setting the high tide line on the maps to about 4.5 metres in Early Saxon/Late Roman times.
My logic for this is found on these pages:
Landscape - Was the sea level in Saxon times at Pevensey 4 to 5 metres higher ?
Was the high tide in Saxon times 5 metres higher ? - the Wash
and a theoretical explanation of why which may or may not be correct
Landscape - High Tide changes in the last 2000 years
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Roman roads that just appear to terminate inland ▲
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The Roman European roads described are from Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire and the UK ones are from our maps of Ivan D Margary taken from his book 'Roman Roads in Britain'.
Please note that the darker shaded areas show the sea at approximately 4.5 metres above current levels, please note this is an approximation as I don't have a way of accurately plotting this. To see a more accurate version please go to flood.firetree.net and choose 5 metres in the pull down.
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Margary road M38 - Smallburgh to Denver ▲
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Margary describes the Smallburgh end of the road as
This east-west road has only recently been recognised as a major route, although part of it on Marsham Heath has long been known. It appears to be the obvious eastward continuation of the Fen Road(25) from Durobrivae and Peterborough through Denver to the east coast, perhaps to the Roman site at Caistor next Yarmouth, or to a port now destroyed by the severe coastal erosion, but it has not yet been identified east of the river Ant at Smallburgh
If the high tide level was approximately 4.5 metres higher in Roman times, Smallburgh would have sat directly on the coast — which also explains why Margary could find no continuation of the road eastward. There was nowhere further to go: it had reached the sea.
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Margary M51 - Ilchester to Puriton ▲
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Margary describes the Puriton end of the road as
At Bawdrip after crossing the railway, it is lost for 1/2 mile but then reappears as a lane past the north side of Knowle Hall grounds, and continuing straight along the ridge to its very tip at Dunhall, near Puriton, no doubt to connect to a small harbour on the estuary of the river Parrett.
Margary himself suggested the road was heading for a small harbour on the River Parrett estuary — he just could not identify it. At a tidal level 4.5 metres higher, Dunhall would have been a substantial coastal site. This may have been one of the more significant Roman ports on the Bristol Channel, now entirely landlocked.
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Margary M27 - Lincoln to Burgh Le Marsh ▲
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Margary describes the Burgh Le Marsh end of the road as
Then beyond Candlesby Hill a hedgerow in the same line marks it up to the east side of Welton vicarage, but beyond this there is no trace, until on the north west outskirts of Burgh le Marsh, the lane leading back to Orby marks the line for 1/2 mile into Burgh.
This is the last certain portion of the alignment, which if continued beyond Burgh would have crossed the marshes to the coast.
At a high tide level of 4.5 metres above current levels, Burgh le Marsh would have sat on the shore of the Wash. It is quite possible it served as either a Roman port or a lookout station for vessels entering the estuary — the road exists precisely because there was something worth reaching at its end.
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Margary M273 - Stixwould to Saltfleet ▲
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M273 Stixwould to Saltfleet
It was probably continued south-westward near Stixwould on the edge of the fens, and may have had a connection through Woodhall Spa and North Kyme with the Sleaford road but this is uncertain.
This is the eastward description of this road.
At a high tide level 4.5 metres higher than today, Stixwould would have been a coastal location, explaining both the terminus of the road and its otherwise puzzling relationship to the fenland edge.
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Margary M58b - Grantham(Saltersford) to Donington ▲
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M58b Grantham(Saltersford) to Donington
After passing Swaton, where it turns a little to the south-east, it crosses the belt of fen land and bears the name Bridge End Causeway, reaching Donington just beyond, and no definite course has been traced onwards.
The name Bridge End Causeway is itself suggestive — a causeway implies a raised road crossing regularly flooded or tidal ground. At a high tide level 4.5 metres higher than today, Donington would have been at the water's edge, and the causeway would have been the only reliable approach to it across tidal marsh.
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Margary M332 - Roudham Heath to Hockwold ▲
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M332 Roudham Heath to Hockwold
The present road deviates through the village, but the line is continued by a hedgerow and footpath until, just beyond, the present road resumes the line and continues very straight for 3 1/2 miles to Hockwold and through the village right to the edge of the fenland area
At a high tide level 4.5 metres higher than today, Hockwold would have sat on the fenland coast. The road runs dead straight to the very edge of the fen — it was not abandoned mid-route, it arrived at its destination.
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Margary M23b - Cambridge to Littleport ▲
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M23b Cambridge to Littleport
The Ely road returns to the line for the last 1/2 mile to the town, and it is likely that this line was followed by the Roman road right on to Littleport, rather to the west of the centre of Ely
At a high tide level 4.5 metres higher than today, Littleport would have been partially or wholly submerged, suggesting the road's true destination was not Littleport itself but a now-lost harbour or crossing point just before it. Ely, which the road passes through, would have been a true island — as its name, derived from el æg (eel island), has always suggested.
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| And now some in Northern Europe ▲ |
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The same pattern of roads terminating at what would have been coastal locations appears in Northern France and Belgium. The Notitia Dignitatum, a late Roman administrative document compiled around 420 AD, lists several military stations on the Saxon Shore of Gaul whose exact locations remain unidentified — which is less surprising if those locations were coastal ports that are now several kilometres inland.
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| Notitia dignitatum ▲ |
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The Notitia Dignitatum (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the Late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of Roman government, and describes several thousand offices from the imperial court to provincial governments, diplomatic missions, and army units. It is usually considered to be accurate for the Western Roman Empire in the AD 420s and for the Eastern or Byzantine Empire in the AD 390s.
These details are an extract from the Wikipedia entry for the Notitia dignitatum.
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| XXXVIII. Dux Belgicae secundae. ▲ |
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This is the original latin from the Notitia dignitatum
Sub dispositione viri spectabilis ducis Balgicae secundae:
Equites Dalmatae, Marcis in litore Saxonico.
Praefectus classis Sambricae, in loco Quartensi siue Hornensi.
Tribunus militum Neruiorum, Portu Epatiaci.
Which translates into
Under the command of the distinguished Duke of Belgica Secunda:
Dalmatian horsemen, at Marcae on the Saxon Shore.
Commander of the Sambrian fleet, at the place of Quartense or Hornes.
Tribune of the Nervii soldiers, at Portus Aepatiaci.
This is another extract from Wikipedia
The Notitia also includes two separate commands for the northern coast of Gaul, both of which belonged to the Saxon Shore system. However, when the list was compiled, in c. 420 AD, Britain had been abandoned by Roman forces.
The first command controlled the shores of the province Belgica Secunda (roughly between the estuaries of the Scheldt and the Somme), under the dux Belgicae Secundae with headquarters at Portus Aepatiaci
Marcae (unidentified location near Calais, possibly Marquise or Marck), garrisoned by the Equites Dalmatae. In the Notitia, together with Grannona, it is the only site on the Gallic shore to be explicitly referred to as lying in litore Saxonico.
Locus Quartensis sive Hornensis (probably at the mouth of the Somme), the port of the classis Sambrica ("Fleet of the Somme")
Portus Aepatiaci (possibly Étaples), garrisoned by the milites Nervii.
Although not mentioned in the Notitia, the port of Gesoriacum or Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer), which until 296 was the main base of the Classis Britannica, would also have come under the dux Belgicae Secundae
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Map of Northern France and Belgium with the sea at 4.5 metres High Tide. ▲
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This map is derived from the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire
From this map of Northern France and Belgium we can see that the coastline has changed significantly from Roman times, this map also shows Roman roads that cannot be traced beyond the 4.5 metre high tide level.
Also from this map it would seem that Marcae was either at modern Ardres, Arques or Burgues, as these would all have been on the coast.
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| Conclusion ▲ |
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The roads on this page were not built carelessly or abandoned without reason. Roman engineers constructed roads to connect places that mattered — administrative centres, military stations, and above all, ports. A road that terminates in what is now open fenland, or a quiet market town well inland, is not a road that was never finished. It is a road whose destination has been erased by centuries of coastal change.
Taken together — the British road termini, the Fenland causeways, the unidentified Gaulish shore forts of the Notitia Dignitatum, and the place-name evidence from the Pevensey Levels and the Wash — the pattern is consistent and geographically widespread. These are not isolated anomalies. They are precisely what you would expect to find if the coastline of Roman and early Saxon Britain and northern Gaul bore little resemblance to the one we know today.
The 2026 paper by Dr Roger Higgs in the Journal of Coastal Research now provides geological confirmation of a rapid 4-metre marine transgression centred on 430–500 AD. What the Roman roads suggest, the place names encode, and the geology confirms: the world these people inhabited looked fundamentally different from ours, and the sea that shaped it has since retreated far enough to hide the evidence in plain sight.
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Local Interest
Just click an image |
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![Saxon viking axe](javascript:launch_resize("/images/1066AD/saxon_viking_axe_lft.png",900,1000);)
![Detailed route of Margary M38](javascript:launch_resize("/images/DbImages/landscape/margary_38.png"))
![Detailed route for Margary M51](javascript:launch_resize("/images/DbImages/landscape/margary_51.png"))
![Detailed route for Margary M27](javascript:launch_resize("/images/DbImages/landscape/margary_27.png"))
![Map showing the Northern French and Belgium coast at high tide 4.5 metres](javascript:launch_resize("/images/DbImages/roman_roads_northern_france_and_belgium.png"))
