Map of Chichester Roman Road east of Exton, Hants

The reason our Winchester - Chichester Roman Road was investigated was because the Antonine Itinerary VII gives the wrong mileage if Clausentum is placed at Bitterne near Southampton. These Itineraries were Roman routes listing places on the way with their Roman mileages. A Roman site was excavated in the 1980s at the X on the above map by the A32 to the left of the OS Grid Marker. If Clausentum was actually sited here the mileages would agree with Iter VII. We have thus searched for evidence beyond the one house excavated near our Roman Road - which here has two lanes going under the southern slopes of Old Winchester Hill, and the third larger lane some way south along the modern Stocks Lane.

A combination of LIDAR, air photography, and optical methods has produced the grid system to the SW of the OS Grid Marker. There are two principal components - N - S, and E - W, then a number of smaller E - W lines. The evidence coming from the LIDAR is coloured yellow or green - but most shows up on air photography which is indicated in black. Dotted lines on the map represent light lines. Our two Roman Road lanes go through this grid - LIDAR shows more than we originally found - these are shown in red - including a third lane which ends at the principal N - S component. This N - S component starts at our larger Roman Lane running along Stocks Lane, and ends at the 1980s excavated building.

In the 1930s when the A32 was formed by widening the route shown on the map Roman building materials were found on both sides of the road. LIDAR shows that the E - W lines continue over the flood plain of the River Meon. Probably these were to provide access to the water meadows - rather than people living here. White centred triangles show where optical methods show swellings. The principal E - W component can be seen with a naked eye as a swelling and terrace across the field to the A32 - and slightly as a swelling across the flood plain. This may have originally been a causeway.