- Roman Ridge
The Roman Ridge (or Roman Rig) is a Dyke in
South Yorkshire ,England that runs from nearWincobank inSheffield toMexborough . Its purpose and date of construction are unknown. Formerly thought to have been a Roman road, modern archaeologists think that it was built either in the1st century AD by the Brigantian tribes as a defence against theRoman invasion of Britain , or after the5th century to defend the kingdom ofElmet from theAngles .The southernmost end of the dyke is thought to have been close to
Lady's Bridge at the River Don in Sheffield, but today it only becomes visible close to the Iron Age fort at Wincobank. The dyke continues in a north-easterly direction following the Don Valley toKimberworth inRotherham where it splits into two branches that continue roughly parallel to each other in a sweep starting to the north-east and turning east. The southern branch passes throughGreasbrough , intersecting the River Don just south of Swinton atKilnhurst . The northern branch passes close to another Iron Age fort atScholes Coppice and runs to the north of Swinton, meeting the River Don at Mexborough.Part of the western end of the ridge was used in the Middle Ages to demarcate the boundary of
Ecclesfield and Sheffield. This western part parallels the Don, and a report of 1891 in the "Sheffield Independent " stated that it had formerly run as far west asBridgehouses . Part of the northern branch formed the boundary betweenWath-on-Dearne on the one side andRawmarsh and Swinton on the other. [David Hey, "Medieval South Yorkshire"]ee also
*
Templeborough
*Carl Wark References
*Brigantes Nation (2002). [http://www.brigantesnation.com/SiteResearch/Iron%20Age/RomanRig/RomanRig.htm Roman Rig.] (Accessed17 December 2005 .)
*Hunter, Joseph (1819). An inquiry into the early state and remote history of the Parish of Sheffield. In: "Hallamshire. The History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York." pp15–23. London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mayor & Jones. This book is out of print but can be purchased on [http://blunham.com/CDroms/Descriptions/Hallamshire.html CD-ROM]
*Leader, R.E. (1906). "The Highways and Byways of Old Sheffield." A lecture delivered before the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society ( [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mossvalley/mv2/rl/highways1.html transcription] )
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