The Old Roads of Derbyshire

Welcome to my Old Roads of Derbyshire website and blog!

You can sample my book on the history of roads, travel and travellers in Derbyshire, then browse through over a hundred posts on these and related subjects. There are posts on everything from prehistoric burial sites beside ancient routes, to the twentieth-century ramblers who helped preserve ancient footpaths. Enjoy exploring my website and the paths of Derbyshire!

The Old Roads of Derbyshire

Derbyshire has a wealth of old roads, lanes, tracks, hollow ways and paths, some dating back thousands of years. It is a network which links a fascinating variety of sometimes enigmatic monuments, from fortified hilltops and stone circles to ruined abbeys and hermitages, ancient churches and tumuli.

The Old Roads of Derbyshire traces the development of these roads, from prehistoric ridgeways, Roman ‘streets’ and medieval pilgrimage routes to the growth of the turnpikes, and finally to leisure use by cyclists and hikers. Travellers of all kind are included: ‘jaggers’ with their packhorse trains, pilgrims, drovers, pedlars and tramps, and passengers in stage coaches and wagons, as well as the essential infrastructure of bridges and inns.

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*Stukeley’s plan of Little Chester, 1723*

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Searching for DerventioAugust 25, 2026

Map of Little Chester, published by William Stukeley, 1723

The Roman settlement at Little Chester, near Derby, is the key to Derbyshire’s Roman road network, a network that still influences the modern road system. We are fortunate that the antiquarian William Stukeley left this detailled plan, showing that three hundred years ago the Roman fort was still clearly defined on the east bank of the Derwent. What we now call Ryknild Street, the Chesterfield to Lichfield route, ran nearby, and the old fort was surrounded by a ditch. Traces of the fort’s walls remained, while the central area appears to have been an orchard in the eighteenth century. The two alehouses shown (The Crown and The Duke’s Head) were presumably non-Roman. Most interestingly, in the bottom left-hand corner, ‘Ruins of a Bridge’ are marked, suggesting that perhaps stone pillars had survived of what may have been the terminus of Long Lane, the road to Rocester. Today, after two months of drought, the river still looks a formidable obstacle, requiring a sturdy bridge.

Almost unreadable sign

The fort seems to have been established about 70 CE when the legions first reached the North Midlands, but was possibly abandoned after the frontier was pushed north in the following years. However, a civilian town grew up at the junction of these roads, and this outlived the army, while signs of occupation continue into the Viking period. Eventually the town of Derby moved to its present position, a mile or so to the south, and Little Chester was built up in the late nineteenth century on its current street pattern.

Alleged Roman well in Marcus Street, which claims to be on the exact line of Ryknild Street.

Today it’s hard to get any sense of a Roman past in the pleasant suburb. The view from the park by the river is dominated by the new, massive and hopefully effective flood defence wall (see below). Several streets have ‘Roman’ names, such as Camp Street and Derventio Close. The only survivor seems to be this so-called Roman well in Marcus Street, which looks 95% modern. Otherwise the past isn’t commemorated in any way, unless you count three information boards scattered around (see above), one of which is totally unreadable.

Not built by Hadrian

What a shame that Derby, a city with several good museums, makes so little effort to illustrate its origins, especially as, even today, Little Chester is otherwise a green and well-kept oasis, with sports facilities and riverside walks – but no sense of its past.