The route enters Survey Map 9 below at the NW corner with the 40' terrace to the south and the two smaller terraces to the north, as it left Survey Map 8. The land starts to slope down to the SW and becomes quite steep. The three terraces seem to be Pure Terraces - cut completely out of the hillside. The layout is shown in the Sketch section at the top of the map. The modern lane is on the middle terrace shown as a black layer, and the 40' terrace below in the fields with a track on it. Modern fence boundaries and overgrown areas are shown.
The modern lane starts to fall increasingly to the south, and a most remarkable feature develops which has been studied by Society members for some years. The aim of this mapping survey was to establish how many lanes are involved, from the single lane assumed at the start. The general arrangement is shown in the Sketch Section on the left near the middle of the Map above. The modern lane forms a Hollow Way which becomes increasingly deep as you go south. If you climb up the west face of this Hollow Way you come to a Stranded Ledge as shown in the Sketch Section 2 - 4 yards wide. Sometimes it is in perfect condition, sometimes it has a little Hollow Way in it, sometimes it is very eroded. In all there is about 3000' of Stranded Ledge.
Upper Terrace
To the west there is a Cut-back, in some places over 6' high, then the fields. Here there is another level way, with another Cut-back visible optically above. This Cut-back only is shown on Survey Map 9 - for other details consult the Sketch Section. The crops are not normally grown on this level way as the Sketch Section illustrates. It is around 25' wide, but can be wider. This is the Upper Terrace, and apart from ploughing, is in good condition. The field fence posts follow the top of the Cut-Back above the Stranded Ledge, and it can be seen that they form short straight lengths.
Lower Terrace
Returning to the modern lane, the Lower Terrace can be seen by climbing up the east face of the Hollow Way where the vegetation allows. It is in the fields as a level way up to 25' wide, but can be less - we do not know how much the Hollow Way has cut into it. The line of fence posts here also gives the impression of short straight lengths.
Eleven Sketch Sections were drawn down the White Way to where the feature ends as it bends to the east. The conclusion is that the original feature was as in the Sketch Section shown to the right of the White Way, where the large 40' terrace is now in the middle, and each terrace was cut out of the hillside. The OS Explorer 1:25k map which has contours at 5m intervals indicates that the feature is constructed on an escarpment, with the Upper Terraces sited where the ground is levelling off - as indicated in the Sketch Section. This causes the feature to move in curves - though made up of short straight lengths. This is a new form of Roman Road construction not previously recognised - though something similar was seen in Survey Map 8 - though the escarpments were smaller.
It seems the middle terrace remained in use, and wore a deep Hollow Way, which destroyed the terrace except for the Stranded Ledge just below the Cut-back, and soon took the modern route below the level of the Lower Terrace. By the time the ground becomes level between the two Sketch Sections at the top of Survey Map 9 (where the change to the Middle Terrace being the wide 40' is likely to occur) a substantial Hollow Way has already formed. For we have not seen any clear evidence for the Cut-back between the Middle and Lower Terraces - possibly some occurs at the bottom (in the region of the Chalk Pit) - but it is not conclusive.
White Way
The Chalk Pit shows what the feature would have looked like when it was made - the three terraces would stand out as white - especially if the Running Surfaces were chalk. Some of this may have been visible to the early Saxon settlers - who give us most of our place names - and this is another case where this Roman Road has probably cause a name in the landscape.
Causeway
As the White Way swings to the east the ground levels off, and a large Causeway forms for the Middle 40' Terrace, and partly for the smaller Northern Terrace. The purpose of this Causeway is to bridge a valley running down from the north but coming to an end in this region, and also to enable the road to gain height to tackle the escarpment of the White Way. Walking or driving along this lane, which is upon the Causeway, you do not notice how much you have risen above the ground on both sides due to the high vegetation. The position of this Causeway is shown by the black triangles on the north side (only) - on the south side the Build-up does not extend so far west. The material excavated from the three Pure Terraces would have been used to make this Causeway - and also probably one across the river Meon on the next map. The Sketch Section at the bottom of Survey Map 9 shows the arrangement near the Causeway's maximum height. A ditch can be seen running on the edge of the Northern Terrace.
Road Splits
A development in this region is that the Road splits. On the east edge of the Survey Map 9 there is a big northern Agger Terrace, with a ditch running below the Build-up, and another ditch running in the field to the north (this however is shown on the Survey Map as a previous field boundary). Near 200' down the slope to the south is a smaller Agger Terrace. Bing air photo shows a disturbance carrying on the line of this Southern Agger Terrace connecting with what was the Upper Terrace of the White Way [Contrast Enhanced 70% Weak & Powerful Magnifiers into desk light]. The Sketch Section shows this southerly lane as an optical terrace visible in places. Both terraces have their own little lanes leading into Exton - but a big house and garden have been built on the edge of Survey Map 9.
The 1" to 1 Mile map (Ref 3) www.nehhas.org.uk/rrchmap.htm shows two lanes some way apart running from Exton below Old Winchester Hill. The region has now been surveyed in detail in Survey 10 and Survey 11.
Principal Surveyors
Donald Ashdown, Jerry Revell, Philip Rowbotham. Richard WhaleyMap Caption Survey Map 9, OS Hants Sheet 59 NW, 6" : 1 mile 3rd edition revised 1908. The bars of the Grid Marker are 1000'. For meaning of symbols see Ref 1.
REFERENCES
1. Survey 1 & map symbols, NEHHAS FAB e News 6 Winter 2013,
http://www.nehhas.org.uk/rrch1.htm
2. Survey 8, FAB e News 8,
http://www.nehhas.org.uk/rrch8.htm
3. Introduction to the Chichester Roman Road, FAB e News 5 Autumn 2012
http://www.nehhas.org.uk/rrch12-9.htm
4. OS Explorer Map 132 1:25k . 2009
5. www.bing.com Gettamapping 2011, Old Winchester Hill - White Way
In Survey 12, Up to Teglease Down published in e News 11, Spring 2015, it was concluded that the 40' Roman lane had taken a completely different route from the two lanes we had surveyed from Exton under the southern slopes of Old Winchester Hill. It was straightforward to trace this on the lane over Westend Down, down a Zig Zag to Stock's Lane and back to Exton. These are being added to the Survey Maps 10 - 11. This route can be followed on the 1" : 1 mile map. The difficulty was finding how it crossed the flood plain of the r Meon, and joined up with the Roman Road from the White Way.
There is some air photo evidence linking Beacon Hill Lane (which is deeply sunken running though Exton down to the river) with the White Way. But this would involve going up and down the valley for which the substantial causeway was designed to bridge - the branch off was likely to be beyond this (see above Map). More LIDAR was obtained to see if remains of the causeway which was likely to be constructed across the flood plain showed up. Interestingly this found more of the two lanes already found, and more is seen in the black and white print than in the colour print. A problem is that the line is likely to go through houses and gardens. This line is also crossing the joins in the maps we are using to publish.
The last alignment of Stock's Lane before the railway was continued over the map joins and the flood plain. This consisted of two ditches, and the southern edge of the build-up which is visible just west of the railway. These lines are left visible on the above Survey Map 9. Large scale air photos were obtained (Ref 1).
LIDAR (Ref 2 - black & white) showed a feature associated with the build-up and central roadway over the flood plain from the A32 to the river. It was a series of light and dark lines running in the road's direction. On the colour print this area was bounded by thin light lines outside the roadway (the light and dark lines of the black & white print did not show). It is not possible to interpret what these LIDAR features mean, except to say that these projected lines of the Roman Road appear to be followed by these LIDAR features. On the above Survey Map 9 the only feature showing is the northern light line of the colour print, which is the line of fine dots in the SE corner.
From the air photograph, the line of the northern ditch shows up as a dark line in the field up to Allens Farm Lane, and continues in the field west of the lane. These are shown as black lines of the approximate width on the above map. The lane itself has a huge bump in it associated with the projected build-up line (this we had noticed before - it is not shown as the lane in the above map is too small). In the field there is a large build-up to the north of the projected build-up line (some of this may be natural). Along the projected build-up line is a thin light air photo line [view obliquely into desk light, weak magnifier]. This light line is probably a revetment, and we show an optical build-up running along this light line.
These features only run part way into this field. The contrast enhanced air photo then shows a thin light line running parallel to a thicker dark line running northwards. The dark line joins with the dark line of the Stocks Lane alignment. The build-up of the Stocks Lane alignment bends northwards to become a build-up running northwards. The ground is flat from the build-up to the lane (running under the Sketch Section). This is likely to be why this was chosen to link the 40' Roman lane to that coming from the White way to that of the Stocks Lane alignment. The light line running north is probably a revetment, and we show the build-up running along it. The line runs into a house and garden north of Beacon Hill Lane.
This problem has been solved by taking a possible line, recovering features along it, which then lead to substantial ground features which indicate the Road's course.
Garden
The new northerly route now runs through a garden before meeting the route from the White Way. The air photo shows nothing. This garden was examined with the kind permission of Mr & Mrs Martin. The southern E - W route shows up clearly over the lawn, with a southern build-up and a probable revetment, and a northern ditch. But these faded out at the spot where the new 40' lane from the south passes over. These are shown in the attached drawing http://www.nehhas.org.uk/rrch9nch.htm Features 5 & 7, and 8 & 9. The ground is flat in the direction of motion of the new 40' lane, and the effect on the southern E - W lane is the only evidence.
On the same drawing there is evidence of a further lane over the lawn to the east of the house, with a ditch to the north - features 2 & 3 on the drawing. The Ref 1 air photo has a dark line in the field to the east, Feature 5 on the drawing, with a light line between Features 2 & 3. However these do not go to a position of the eastern field boundary which would accord with the northern Roman lane on the above Survey Map 9.
These were investigated on the ground, and plotted on a Plan made from the Ref 1 air phto - which is likely to be more accurate than the OS map. This is shown at http://www.nehhas.org.uk/rrch9nl.htm. Feature 3 is the course of the light air photo line mentioned in the last paragraph, to the eastern boundary of the field. Nothing however could be seen here. But 100' to the west a ledge appears in binoculars, illustrated in the Sketch Section at the top of the Plan. There is an optical ditch between the ledge and the large feature, assumed to be the main Roman lane in the above Survey Map 9, whose course is indicated by the figures 2 on the Plan. The light air photo line is bounded by dark lines, especially in the west of the field. Where these dark lines are shown on the Plan the feature becomes a swelling visible in binoculars, and possibly with a naked eye. It seems there is likely to be three Roman lanes going E - W, not two as in the above Survey Map 9. At the eastern field boundary this feature 3 lane is likely to be buried by erosion product from the main lane above it - this was found in the Ref 3 excavation.
The ditch across the lawn east of the house, feature 4 on the Plan, was found to be parallel to the field boundary and presumed course of the main Roman lane - and is probably the same feature as the optical ditch in the Sketch Section on the Plan. Confirming these by excavation is being discussed with the landowner. Richard Whaley
REFERENCES
1. www.bing.com air photo Exton gettamapping plc 2015 aprox 1: 7,500
2. LIDAR, Environment Agency, SU 61 20, colour print (usual), black and white
3. Two Lane Highway found in Holt Pound, NEHHAS Jn 3 No. 5a http://www.nehhas.org.uk/hp07-8j.htm.