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“The Ancient Roads of Britain were pre-Roman

By John Chaple

Britain, especially England, is renowned for its ‘quaint’ medieval villages, towns and cities. It is also known for its medieval winding roads and lanes.

But, are these roads really medieval? It is a deceptively simple question but one that is rarely asked, so how can you tell how old one of these distinctive roads is? The answer is as simple as the question – by looking at what came first. In modern times we have canals, railways and motorways and these when built had to cut through any existing roads just as you would expect. What happens if you do the same thing but instead look at the Roman road system?

Roman roads are well documented and are characterised by their straightness so it is very easy to check which came first the Roman road system or the medieval system, simply by observing which cuts though which.

The somewhat surprising answer is that the Roman road system cuts through the ‘medieval’ network in a very convincing way, proving that ‘medieval’ roads are at least
two millennia old or earlier. This really ought not to be surprising as we know from chariot burials and the war chariots that greeted Julius Caesar during his invasion – at least four thousand of them – that the ancient British had chariots, so it is almost impossible to see how they could have not have had roads. The problem is that on the TV and in the media we are continually told that before the Romans arrived in Britain there were no roads at all and that the Ancient British were ignorant savages, but this really could not be further from the truth as they already had a very substantial road network,
the so-called medieval network....”
http://www.thenationalcv.org.uk/More%207%20The%20Ancient%20Roads%20of%20Britain%20were%20Pre-Roman%20(2).pdf