Report from the Star on 15th November, this is probably the road called 'Via Militaris Antonines' on the 1849 maps of Doncaster:
A DONCASTER man has turned Time Team detective to unearth a possible Roman road – just a spear's throw away from where he plays golf.
The Bessacarr resident has been a long-standingmember of Doncaster Golf Club on Bawtry Road, and knew of a club legend that such a road ran across the site of the golf course at a spot known as Warren Wood.
Two of the club's holes used to be positioned near the wood but were abandoned when the course was redesigned after the M18 motorway cut through it in the 1970s.
Although there were no records of a Roman road crossing the golf course, Mr Halstead decided to have a closer look and found a substantial bank lined with trees that reminded him of the 'aggers' described in Geoff and June Bennetts' local history magazine, The Cantley and Bessacarr Journal.
With their help, and with images from Google Earth, Mr Halstead and the Bennetts were able to use a row of trees as a marker to show it was directly in line with a route stretching to an old Roman fort on the banks of the River Torne near Rossington.
Mr Halstead said: "Years and years ago I can remember Maurice Birkett, a former professional at the club, referring to a Roman road and he said a certain bank was the remains of it.
"It was only when I looked for it that I realised the agger was there across one of the old fairways.
"I thought Geoff and June had not mentioned this in their research so I mentioned it to them when I bumped into them at the local library.
"They were very interested and we researched it together. Although it had been known about before I am pleased it has been rediscovered and brought to the attention of the wider public, although there's not much to see of the road now."
Mr Bennett said they had previously established that part of Bawtry Road was part of the course of the main Roman Military Road to Doncaster.
"A Roman road usually consists of a raised bank with a ditch on either side. Once the road goes out of use and is no longer maintained, the ditches fill up with soil over the years.
"If Geoff Halstead's bank is actually the remains of a Roman agger then the trees have probably grown along the lines of the two ditches."
The Bennetts and Mr Halstead are hoping archaeologists who have been mapping the nearby Manor Farm site will also take a closer look at Warren Wood after project manager Paula Ware confirmed she also believed it was a Roman bank.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/doncaster/Now-golfer-hoping-to-dig.6626373.jp
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