It is said that the road bearing the name Via Devana ran between Colchester and Chester, thus connecting, on its route, two other major Roman routes, the Fosse Way and Ermine Street.

The Fosse Way ran from the South West, through the Midlands and up to Lincoln, marking the northern boundary of the Roman occupation.  Ermine Street ran down the east coast, linking London to the Scottish border. Since Colchester was the site of a major British settlement it is likely that a road leading northwest existed in pre-Roman times. 

18th century antiquaries called it the Via Devana, implying that it led to Chester (Deva). It probably reached Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire, where it met the Ermine Street, later to become the Old North Road, just before this route crossed the River Ouse to enter Huntingdon.  

Prof F.J.Haverfield (writing in The Archaeological Journal Vol LXXV 2nd Series Vol XXV pp1046) concluded from his research that the Via Devana was only a local road.  Colin Ellis (History in Leicester (1948)) believed that possibly a trade route existed before and during the Roman occupation which connected south-east England with the north-west and passed through Leicester, but as this was of pre-Roman origin it did not conform to the typical undeviating Roman plan.  The Ordnance Map of Roman Britain (1928) certainly offers a cautious extension of the route from Medbourne towards Godmanchester and Cambridge.

Recent archaeological evidence has emerged at Bath Lane in the village of Moira, north-west of Leicester, which appears to prove the existence of a Roman Road known by local tradition as the Leicester Headland, which ran from Rycknild Street south-west of Burton to Leicester.  This passed through Linton, Moira, Willesley and Normanton le Heath, and south-eastwards towards Leicester.  It appears from its route to be part of the Via Devana.

This page surveys the confirmed southern track of the road, from the centre of Leicester to the village of Medbourne.

From the Roman forum to the north of New Walk



The Gartree Road left the south gate of the Roman town of Leicester (Ratae) in an east-south-easterly direction crossing the Fosse Way on that road's east-west route immediately to the south of the forum.

The road may have taken the route now followed by the New Walk, a pedestrian path from the centre of Leicester to Victoria Park. Some archaeological evidence supports this theory derived from excavations undertaken when Waterloo Way was constructed in a cutting under New Walk. A cemetery thought to date from the Roman period but also containing Saxon remains was discovered in the late 19th Century at the end of New Walk near to its junction with Granville Road.

Samuel Lewis, in his Topographical Dictionary of England (1831) wrote:

"The Via Devana, from Colchester to Chester, enters this county near Cottingham, and, crossing the Welland, passes Medbourne, near Slanston Mill, whence it is continued between the two Strettons to Leicester, where it joins the Fosse, which, however, it soon leaves to proceed to Grooby, whence it is carried by Ashby to Burton upon Trent."

The concluding section of the route of the Gartree Road (from the B6047 to the county border)
will be added in due course

Beyond Leicestershire

The Roman name for Colchester was Camulodunum. It is thought that The Via Devana ran south-east towards Colchester via a possible settlement and fort near Wixoe on the River Stour, and thence north-west to Godmanchester where it terminated, the route northwards continuing via Ermine Street through Water Newton towards Lincoln.