MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY Stane Street
The Roman Road from London to Chichester, commonly known as Stane Street, ran through the heart of Merton and Morden. The line of the road is preserved on the borders of Mitcham as Colliers Wood High Street, the southernmost section of the straight stretch of road through Tooting.
Crossing the Wandle by a ford in the vicinity of Merton Bridge, the road lies under Sainsbury’s/M&S on the site of Merton Priory.
There is some evidence that the road may have been diverted at an early date towards the present South Wimbledon crossroads and along Merton High Street, presumably to avoid the low-lying land by the river. It is likely that Merton was the site of one of the posting stations along the course of the Roman road, possibly in the area of the Lombard Road industrial estate where some 500 Roman coins, dating from the first to fourth centuries AD, were discovered during gravel extraction in 1922.
MHS member Bill Sole reported in MHS Bulletin 114 (June 1995) a diagonal ridge in Morden Road A24 on the assumed line of Stane Street.
Physical evidence for the road was found during building work in the vicinity of the Civic Centre and excavations in Morden Park in 1958/9 established its route across the park. In 1963 MHS member Bill Rudd observed a flint-chalk-flint layer at a maximum thickness of some two feet, indicative of Roman road layers, when construction works were carried out by Post Office Telephones for a new service chamber in the public pavement of London Road near the drive to the car park in Morden Park.
The present A24 between Lower Morden Lane and the crossing of the Pyl Brook at Pylford Bridge, near the Lord Nelson pub, runs alongside the historic Morden parish boundary, which for centuries has followed the line of the Roman road until it continues through Cheam to Ewell and beyond.
A NEW RESOURCE
Digital Britannia is the name of the new online map produced by Mike Haken of the Roman Roads Research Association. It is fully up to date, and freely available online, with instructions on how to use it.
Digital Britannia is currently in its first beta version, and work will continue on it as further discoveries are made and research is published.