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 large numbers of Roman coins were discovered during gravel extraction.
MHS member Bill Sole reported in MHS Bulletin 114 (June 1995) a diagonal ridge in Morden Road A24 precisely on the line assumed by O.G.S. Crawford and printed on some Ordnance Survey maps. Even more remarkably, the fence of Morden Hall Park rises to this shoulder and then falls again. Behind the fence, in the park, there is a distinct hollow which indicates an extraction of material. Extraction of gravel in 1965 was reported, but there were no gravel terraces hereabouts; robbery of Stane Street material is strongly suspected.
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 in this area. 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 from Lower Morden and the crossing of the Pyl Brook at Pylford Bridge, near the Lord Nelson pub, has formed the historic Morden parish boundary for centuries, and follows the line of the Roman road as it continues through Cheam to Ewell and beyond.