The Street (Margary 71)

Roman Road

The Street is the medieval name for the Roman road that crossed the high limestone plateau of central Derbyshire, running southeast from the spa town of Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae) towards modern Derby (Derventio) Roman Fort. Archaeology has confirmed its course from Buxton as far as Longcliffe, just north of Brassington. From there, it is believed to have continued east to Wirksworth, joining a road that crossed the River Derwent at Milford before following the east bank to Little Chester, the site of the Roman settlement of Derventio, on the northern edge of Derby. A 1723 map of Brassington Moor depicts The Street running from Buxton through Pikehall and on to Upper Harborough Field Gate, then along Manystones Lane and Brassington Lane towards Wirksworth — often associated with the probable site of the Roman town Lutudarum. Records from 1613 refer to the Brassington–Wirksworth stretch as “Highe Streete.”

Roman farmsteads were established close to the road to supply food to soldiers and the growing population. One such farm, near Minninglow, was excavated in 1958 by Lomas, revealing the agger structure typical of Roman road construction. The Street was recorded as “Streete Way” in 1533 in the Bateman Manuscript (Chatsworth), and its legacy survives today in local place names such as Street Farm, Street House Farm, Middle Street Farm, and Straight (Street) Knolls Barn. Earlier documents, dating from 963 and around 1223, suggest that the road was once known as King Street.

In the 1950s, historian Ivan Margary classified the route from Little Chester through Buxton to Manchester as Road 71 in his Roman Roads in Britain. A plaque set into a wall near Arbor Low on the Buxton–Derby line of the road (grid reference SK 1649 6232) bears the Latin inscription “Huius viae curam curatores viarum non susceperunt,” meaning “The road menders have not taken care of this road.”

Northwest of Buxton, the section west of the Upper Goyt Valley also retains the name The Street. The northern continuation from Buxton to Melandra (Ardotalia) Roman Fort (near Glossop) was identified in 1970. Excavations confirmed the agger of a Roman road running north to Dove Holes from the junction of Batham Gate with the A6, first noted by Turner in 1903. Further investigations traced its line through Chapel-en-le-Frith, Chapel Minton, Hayfield, and up to Cown Edge, bringing it within three miles of Melandra.

Sites near The Street (Margary 71)

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