The Roman Road from Silchester to St Albans

I spotted the first stretch of this road from Silchester to Reading 10 years ago working with the late Hugh Toller. That was on some of the first Lidar publically available but the Lidar coverage was very patchy back then. With full coverage nowadays it was time to complete the route. Unbeknown to me David Staveley had also investigated this road and some stretches he no doubt found before me. However, we differ in the overall route strategy so time to publish my thoughts of 10 years in the making.
Putting my civil engineer’s hat on then the logic of the road in inescapable. Rather than a simple straight line it targets skirting around the River Thames to the north of Henley-on-Thames. That first alignment I found from Silchester makes that clear. It also crosses the Thames at (or very near) Caversham Bridge, an ancient crossing/bridging point. Admittedly the evidence between Caversham and Henley is weak but the logic of the alignments clearly shows this must have been the Roman route.
Once the corner in the Thames valley is passed then several stretches of the road survive well so not in doubt. The alignments here also confirm the route targeted skirting around that corner. On this section the road has to cross several river valleys running down to the Thames and in many cases the road surveyor has routed the road down natural side valleys. The final stretch to St Albans is again a bit faint but probably close to correct.

Lidar: DEFRA . Note DTM Lidar has been used so all buildings and trees will be stripped away when we set off.
Bespoke Lidar Software: Mike Aerts
Music: For Time To Disappear - Go By Ocean, Ryan McCaffrey