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Historic Environment Record
 

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Rr621 Cardiff, Brecon, Castell Collen Roman Road

Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 00898.0s
Trust : Glamorgan Gwent
Community : Pant
Unitary authority : Merthyr Tydfil
NGR : SO0452809746
Site Type (preferred type first) : Roman road

Summary :
The Roman road nunning northwards from Cardiff via the forts at Caerphilly and Penydarren, towards Brecon Gaer and Castell Collen in Powys. Much of the presumed route follows modern roads and trackways; no earthwork or cropmark evidence has yet been identified within Glamorgan. (The route was at one time believed to run via Gelligaer fort, but following reconsideration of the evidence the road through Gelligaer is now considered to be a branch of PRN 00898.0s, and has been allocated its own PRN, 06602m.)

Description :
Margary (1967, 336-8) assumed that the road running northwards from Cardiff to Brecon Gaer and Castell Collen through Caerphilly and Gelligaer, and then northwards out of Gelligaer and up the western side of the valley of the Taf Fechan. He was followed by RCAHMW (1976, 108-9), whose account provides greater detail, including consideration of how this road might also have provided access to the fort at Penydarren which had been ignored by Margary. Later accounts (Sherman and Evans 2004, 41-44; Evans et al in Burnham and Davies 2010, 325-6) largely adopt RCAHMWs interpretation wholesale, but with some reference also made to the annotated strip maps produced by Ordnance Survey archaeologists, which are deposited in the National Monument Record. Review of the evidence provided by RCAHMW and the OS strip maps, as plotted on current and historic digital mapping combined with digitally plotted air photography (NextPerspective 2011) supplemented by some field visits have lead to a revised interpretation of the line. Whilst a single road connects Cardiff and Caerphilly and continues as far as Mynydd Eglwysilan, it is now believed that this road forks north of Mynydd Eglwysilan, with one breach leading to Penydarren fort in Merthyr Tydfil, and the other to Gelligaer. The section Cardiff Caerphilly Penydarren has been allocated the PRN 00898.0m. The branch running through Gelligaer (diverging from PRN 00898m at ST 12551 93630) has been renumbered 006602.0m.

Although a reasonably convincing argument can be made that much of this route is fossilised in modern roads, there is no unequivocal evidence, and no earthwork or cropmark traces have been recorded.

It is likely that the road followed roughly the same route at the A469 northwards out of Cardiff. The 1st edn OS map shows that it was surveyed in straight sections; however, some of these straight sections are so long as to suggest that they are the result of turnpiking. From the southern edge of Caerphilly Common, the B4600 is more likely to fossilise the route; it proceeds to Caerphilly in a series of short straight alignments as far as Caerphilly Castle. It is at this point aiming more or less directly at the Roman fort, but nothing has been recognisably preserved of its course through the centre of the town .

The most plausible route northwards out of Caerphilly is through Energlyn, along a street which starts as Court Road and becomes Heol Las. RCAHMW (1976, 108) characterises Heol Las as an old track still in use, and accepts as probably representing the line of the Roman road that continues in a direction rather west of north along the western edge of Mynydd Eglwysilan. As it descends from Mynydd Eglwysilan, Heol Las forks off on a more easterly line from the one it has previously been following, in the direction of Gelligaer. RCAHMW assumes that this Gelligaer route is the only Roman road; however, it makes better sense in terms of communications and the topography of this area to see the other fork as the main line, continuing on its northwesterly bearing towards Nelson. This modern unclassified road, which goes by the traditional name of Heol Fawr, is also laid out in short straight length, and continues through Nelson as far as Bwl Road on the outskirts of the village, where the line is lost. It must cross the Bargoed Taff at some point, either in Treharris or Trelewis, and continue northwards to Penydarren, but no persuasive line is visible. A number of trackways traverse the ridge Cefn Merthyr / Mynydd y Capel / Mynydd Cil-yr-encil / Merthyr Common, but none of them has obvious signs of Roman engineering, and the environs of the Penydarren fort have been completely reshaped by the industrialisation of Merthyr.

North of the Heads of the Valleys road, an unclassified road runs northeast at the base of Morlais Hill. This is straight, and is marked on 3rd edn OS map as Roman road. A series of angled turns leads it across the River Taf Fechan at Pont Sarn, a significant place-name (sarn being the Welsh word for a paved road or causeway, frequently associated with Roman roads). Pontsarn bridge (SO 04528 09746) itself is overlooked by Morlais Castle, which was built to control the route used in the Middle Ages into Glamorgan from the north (RCAHMW 2000, 209). From this bridge, the road must have linked to the presumed Roman road PRN 06600.0m, which is assumed to have acted as a distributor road to link routes through the Brecon Beacons with routes through the Coalfield, joining it somewhere in the area between SO 0431 0995 and SO 0440 1098.

Cardiff-Caerphilly-Brecon Gaer road designated RR621 in Sherman and Evans 2004, 41-44, following Margary. Formerly designated A62/RCAHM R06:

Sources :
Burnham, B C and Davies, J L , 2010 , Roman frontiers in Wales and the Marches
Evans, E M , 2001 , Romano-British southeast Wales settlement survey: Final report ( © GGAT)
Margary, I , 1967 , Roman roads of Britain
RCAHMW , 1976 , An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan: Vol I Pre-Norman; Part II The Iron Age and Roman Occupation
RCAHMW , 2000 , An inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan Volume III Part 1b Medieval secular monuments: The later castles
Sherman, A and Evans, E M , 2004 , Roman roads in South East Wales: Desk-based assessment with reccomendations for fieldwork. GGAT report no.2004/073
/MM RECORD CARD/OS///SO10SW*
/ORAL//HO94/AHA/1960//*
/PM PHOTO//ST JOSEPH///XX428,43*
/PM DESC TEXT//RC//1974/GLAM INVENT/PT II*
/PM DESC TEXT//MARGERY/I/ROMAN ROADS FO BRITAIN/WALES AND THE MARCHES*
/PM DESC TEXT/WILKINS/C/1900/ARCH CAMB/VOL XV p70-73*
/PM DESC TEXT//RCAHM//1982/GLAM INVENT/VOL III PT II p352*
/PM MENTION//MITCHELL/1982/CBA/ARCH IN WALES GP 2 No 22 p37*
/PM MENTION//DE GRAY BIRCH/W/1897/HIST OF MARGAM ABBEY/Ch 3 p17*
/MMAP/GGAT/NEWMAN R/05.02.86//*

Events :
E004006 : Roman roads in South East Wales (year : 2004-05)
E001657 : Romano-British Southeast Wales Settlement Survey (year : 1998-2001)
E008724 : Gelligaer Cemetery, Gelligaer, Caerphilly (year : 2012)

Related records
GGAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 06600.0m
GGAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 06602.0m
GGAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 00898.1s

Compiled date : 15-12-1997


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