The roads built by the Romans in Britain continued to be used for both travel and trade in the Middle Ages for more than a thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, which focuses on the Gough Map. The study shows that as late as the 15th century, the main routes still aligned with the original Roman roads.

The Gough Map is one of the oldest surviving maps of Britain. Drawn on parchment, it dates roughly to the 15th century and depicts cities, rivers, and distinctive red lines connecting different settlements. Historians had believed these lines might represent distances between locations, but the new study confirmed that they mostly depict travel routes used in medieval times.

Researchers Eijas Oksanen from the University of Helsinki and Stuart Brookes from the UCL Institute of Archaeology used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to compare the lines on the map with archaeological evidence, place names, and historical documents. What they found is that nearly one-third of the routes shown on the Gough Map corresponded to Roman roads, while another third were specifically medieval routes, and the rest were from later periods.

Gough map roman roads medieval England
The Gough Map, with the ‘red lines’ highlighted in yellow. Credit: Linguistic Geographies and The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

Roman Legacy in the Middle Ages

The Roman Empire created an extensive road network in Britain between 43 and 410 A.D. to allow for efficient movement of troops and goods. Although many of these roads fell into disuse after the legions withdrew, major routes like the Great North Road and Watling Street, which appear on the Gough Map, continued to be used and have clear Roman origins.

But not all Roman roads survived—some were abandoned due to political changes, such as the medieval fragmentation of England into rival kingdoms, and others fell out of use because the cities they served disappeared or were replaced by new urban centers. For example, the ancient Roman city of Sorviodunum (near modern-day Salisbury) was abandoned, and the routes connecting it gradually lost importance until they were no longer used.

Likewise, regions with stable governments were better able to maintain their infrastructure. In contrast, in border or conflict zones like the Selwood and Weald forests, many Roman roads fell into disuse.

Gough map roman roads medieval England
Detail of Gough map. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

An important factor in the survival of Roman routes was the type of soil they were built on. Those running over well-drained soils fared better over time, while those crossing clayey and damp terrain often deteriorated and were abandoned. Similarly, if the roads connected prosperous cities or major ports, they were more likely to remain in use.

While the shift toward river transport at the expense of land travel might partly explain the lack of surviving Roman road segments along the Thames corridor, this region also experienced significant political turmoil during the early medieval period, when it often formed a frontier between the early English kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, the researchers state. Even so, in the chalk lowlands flanking the Thames, segments of Roman roads persisted.

Archaeologists also analyzed the distribution of thousands of Roman and medieval coins found by metal detectorists in England and discovered that medieval coins tended to appear near the routes marked on the Gough Map, a correlation that became more evident starting in the 11th century with the rise of trade and travel during that period.

In the end, the survival of the routes was the result of tiny, cumulative decisions made by medieval people on the ground. Within this continuum of widespread change, there were different factors shaping mobility across the landscape, and different tempos of transformation resulting from these human decisions, they conclude.

SOURCES

Eljas Oksanen, Stuart Brookes, The afterlife of Roman roads in England: insights from the fifteenth-century Gough map of Great Britain. Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 179, July 2025, 106227. doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2025.106227

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