Stane Street (St Albans)

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There are several Stane Streets in Britain - see also Stane Street (Chichester) and Roman roads in Britain

Roman Britain, with Stane Street in red

Stane Street is a Roman road that connects St Albans in Hertfordshire to Colchester in Essex.

[edit] Route

Stane Street can be traced easily on an Ordnance Survey map as much of it has been incorporated into modern-day roads, or still exists as paths, byways and tracks:

  • Beginning at St Albans, the road leads northeast on the B651. It passes to the south of Wheathampstead and heads towards Welwyn.
  • After Welwyn, the road passes though Oaklands, then turns east-northeast and goes through Watton-at-Stone.
  • The A602 briefly uses Stane Street as it heads east-northeast then northeast towards Standon, passing just south of the village and over a ford of the River Rib.
  • Stane Street then joins the A120 just east of Standon. From here on, the route of Stane Street has been used as the A120 (pre-bypasses of various towns) all the way to Colchester, namely:
    • Heading east through Little Hadham and into Bishop's Stortford, where the road goes missing across the river valley, replaced by the Anglo-Saxon crossing of the River Stort some 600 metres to the south of the Roman crossing.
    • East across the M11 and along the (old A120) B1256 through Takely and into Great Dunmow, where the new A120 bypasses the old A120, which itself bypasses the centre of town and Stane Street!
    • East towards and through Rayne and Braintree, then Coggeshall, Marks Tey and finally arriving in Colchester.

The length of the route, from the centre of St Albans to the centre of Colchester, is approximately 57.0 miles (91.7 km).