Watling Street
Watling Street is a former Roman road in England that led from Portus Dubris ( Dover ) on the south-east coast via Durovernum Cantiacorum ( Canterbury ), Londinium ( London ), Northampton and Birmingham to Viroconium (now Wroxeter in Shropshire ), but also to Castra Devana ( Chester ) and maybe even to Wales .
It led through Londinium , Verulamium ( St Albans ) and the Midlands and was an important part of the network that the Romans created to develop the new Roman province of Britannia ( Britain ). The Anglo-Saxons called it Wæcelinga Stræt , literally "the street of the people of Wæcel". It is not known who Wæcel was, but he also gave his name to Wæclingacaester ( Verulamium ) and it is likely that the street name initially only applied to the route between that city and London before being applied to the entire street.
history
In the year 61 the battle took place on Watling Street , in which the Romans under the governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus decisively defeated the rebellious tribes of the Iceni and Trinovantes under the army leader Boudicca somewhere on Watling Street.
The Wedmore Treaty in the 9th century obliged the defeated Danes to withdraw to the region north and east of Watling Street, which was then named Danelag .
Like most Roman roads, Watling Street north of London fell into disrepair after the Romans left Britain. It is likely that Geoffrey Chaucer's pilgrims used Watling Street to travel from Southwark to Canterbury in its Canterbury Tales .
In the early 19th century, the Thomas Telford road was restored as a toll road so that it could be used by stagecoaches that carried mail to and from Wales and Ireland . To this end, the road was extended to Holyhead in Wales.
Most of the road is still used today, only some sections are different now. The stretch between London and Dover is now the A2 road , the stretch between London and Shrewsbury is the A5 road (which continues to Holyhead), while part of the original road near London is now part of the M 1 motorway .
A Watling Street still exists within London near the underground station " Mansion House "; however, it is unlikely to have anything to do with the Roman Road. This crossed the Thames using the first London Bridge . Nuneaton , Cannock , Dartford , Gravesend , Rochester , Gillingham , Canterbury , Milton Keynes and St Albans have Watling Street under their street names.
