| Port Way | |
|---|---|
| The Portway | |
 | |
| Route information | |
| Length | 36.25 mi (58.34 km) |
| Margary number | 4b |
| Major junctions | |
| From | Calleva Atrebatum |
| Venta Belgarum–Cunetio (Margary route 43) | |
| Location | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Road network | |
Port Way[1] (also known as the Portway)[2][a] is an ancient road in southern England, which ran from Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester, in modern-day Hampshire) in a south-westerly direction to Sorbiodunum (Old Sarum, Wiltshire). Often associated with the Roman Empire, the road may have predated the Roman occupation of Britain.
By the time of the Roman occupation of Calleva Atrebatum and Sorbiodunum, the road formed part of a longer route between Londinium (London) and Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter). The term "Port Way" is sometimes used to refer to this whole route,[1] although the section between Londinium and Calleva Atrebatum is correctly known as The Devil's Highway, and the section between Sorbiodunum and Vindocladia (Badbury Rings) is Ackling Dyke.
The road was studied by antiquarians such as Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Henry MacLauchlan, Charles Roach Smith, Thomas William Shore, Thomas Codrington, and Ivan Margary, and much of the route can still be traced. The section east of Hannington in Hampshire, however, has not been definitively traced in over 100 years and sources differ on the precise route into the Roman town at Calleva Atrebatum.
Margary's Roman road numbering system, devised in the 1950s, gave the route from Londinium to Isca Dumnoniorum the number 4; the Port Way section is 4b. He recorded the distance of this section as 36+1⁄4 miles (58.3 km).
- ^ a b Holmes, Edric (1922). Wanderings in Wessex: An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter. Robert Scott. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ^ Codrington, Thomas (1903). "Codrington's Roman Roads in Britain – Chapter 9". penelope.uchicago.edu. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in London. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ^ Goevert, Tobias; Towle, Adam (2020). Design for London: Experiments in Urban Thinking. London: UCL Press. p. 75. JSTOR j.ctv13xps62.11. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
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