I READ with interest in last week's Review Bob Smyth's article on the Dean Road, which supported the idea that the road was not Roman. However, I was surprised to discover that his information was largely taken from Ian Standing's article in the New Regard for 1988.
Much has been written in local newspapers about the origin of the road since then, including articles and letters by people who consider the road to be Roman. Some reference could, perhaps, have been given in the article to their views.
Whether the road is Roman or not is not an open-and-shut case. Apart from people from the Forest in favour of the conclusion that it is Roman in origin, there is also a considerable body of expert opinion from outside it also in favour.
Thomas Codrington, an eminent archaeologist, visited the Road and examined it thoroughly. He described what he found in his book 'Roman Roads in Britain' in 1918. 'From Soudley Ford,' he said, 'the paving of the Roman Road is plain, and traces and remains of a paved road, distinctly Roman, are almost continuous along the forest track called the Dean Road. Towards Blackpool Bridge the pavement remains almost perfect for 150 yards.' Then he gives descriptions of the paving and states the measurements he made, and continues: 'The Roman paving is again plainly visible on the Dean Road for 40 or 50 yards south of the Blakeney Road.'
Another notable archaeologist, writing in 1914, was W. Clair St Baddeley. He firmly believed that the road was Roman. So did David E. Johnston and Ivan D. Margary, who examined the road, measured its width and component parts and compared what they saw with other ancient roads. Johnston wrote about it in 'Roman Roads in Britain' (1955). Margary, though considering it to be Roman, said he found it rather narrow for a Roman road.
These men were, in their day, experts on Roman roads. No-one remotely equal in stature to them has, to my knowledge, come forward to refute their arguments in this matter. We cannot ignore their views on it just because they were set out some years ago. And these archaeologists had the advantage of examining the road before parts of it were obliterated and destroyed in recent years. – Ralph Anstis, Albion House, Parkend Walk, Coalway, Coleford.