PEDDARS UPDATE

I have always found the Peddars Way - Norfolk's best surviving Roman road, which runs from Stanton Chare in Suffolk to the north Norfolk coast - intriguing in terms of its basics, namely when and why. When was it built, AD47 or post-AD60/61? And why? A military patrol road, a route to a ferry, supply road, or all of these things?
MC Bishop's new book does not answer these questions directly, but it does present a cluster of fresh perspectives on Roman roads in Britain in general, and some of his points seem to have a bearing on the Peddars Way and its beginnings and later use.
First, he suggests, the Romans did not invent hard-surface roadways or even bring the idea with them. Britain already had some routes with hard-surface sections long before the Romans arrived, and there is increasing evidence for them (including causeways, of course) in several places, opening up the possibility that some of these roads (as opposed to tracks) may date from the Iron Age or even the Bronze Age.
Second, the author suggests, the Romans would not have had the time during the invasion phase to begin construction, which throws into question previous thoughts that the Legions might have built their roads as they advanced. His argument is that, with time short and calls on manpower pressing, the advancing Legions would, as far as possible, simply have used existing prehistoric tracks.
Third, he argues that it could only have been during the later consolidation phase - after the invaders had found the local networks with their wandering and muddy surfaces utterly unsuitable for marching troops, and for carts and wagons - that the business of constructing their own roads actually began.
And four, what the Romans actually introduced to Britain was not hard surfaces but all-weather roads, laid out by surveyors with an understanding of gradients and curves, complete with drainage systems. Military and strategic use of almost every part of the network was paramount, so in other words, they simply, and rather skillfully, updated the existing native network.
So how can we apply this to the Peddars Way? Well, if Mr Bishop is right about the Legions using the native network - which seems a logical suggestion - then perhaps they did incorporate into their roads some of the tracks already existing in west and north-west Norfolk. It has been written about before and some writers have said, without recourse to caution, that they did. Yet I don't believe there is any hard evidence for it at all, one reason being that we do not know where the Iron Age or Bronze Age tracks were in the first place.
But here's a thought: maybe the Peddars Way, or sections of it, is actually an updated and improved replacement for Norfolk's part of the Icknield Way. In other words, perhaps the Peddars Way does incorporate pieces of the much-older Icknield.
Another strand of thought in the book is that the Roman military and supply roads, with their all-weather surfaces, bridges and fords, clearly brought long-term benefit to the inhabitants of these islands, particularly during the Medieval period.
It is difficult to argue against that. And it is easy to forget, perhaps, that even today's road network is, by and large, a patchwork, or an accumulation, of many other older networks.
(The Secret History of the Roman Roads of Britain. By MC Bishop. Pen & Sword, 2014)