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The Chichester to Sidlesham Way was a Roman road between Noviomagus Reginorum (the ancient tribal centre of the Regni) and what is now Sidlesham, West Sussex.
The Regni were a pro-Roman subtribe of the Atrebates. The Regni had been trading with the Roman Empire before the Roman conquest of Britain, in AD 43. After the conquest the Romans divided the Atrebates into three cantons, with the Regni canton being centred on Noviomagus Reginorum (now Chichester, West Sussex).[1]
The Chichester area provided a good base for the transfer of sea-borne goods and the storing and distributing of supplies to support the Roman conquest of south west Britain.[1]
All over the Roman Empire, roads were carefully planned and laid out to link centres of occupation together.[2]
The Chichester to Sidlesham Way was a minor Roman road designated RR156 under the Ivan Margary system of cataloguing possible Roman roads. Margary divided Roman roads into three categories: Main Routes are given single-digit numbers, Principal Branches two-digit numbers and Minor Branches three digit numbers. The RR156 began at Chichester and terminated at "Streetend" in Sidlesham. The road originally stretched the 4 miles (6.4 km) between its beginning and terminus. There is little evidence of it today but the original route is described in an Anglo-Saxon charter, dating from AD 903.[a][4][5][6]
Firstly at the hedge, south along Stane Street to Kingsham, thence south-west along the road to the hedge outside the little stony ford, due south to the head of the eastern stream, so west along the stream to Stockbridge, so north along the Fore Street to the southgate.
The charter suggests that the route ran from the south of the city to the west side of Kingsham Farm. Then beyond the Chichester Canal, before passing a little to the east of Streetend Farm.[4]
In the Chichester area there were three roads to neighbouring urban centres, plus other routes that provided convenient cross-country links. These included the RR421 Chichester-Bitterne Road;[7] the RR153 Chichester-Brighton road; [8] and the RR15 Chichester-London (Stane Street).
Locally there is some evidence that there was a road[b] from the west of Sidlesham, that went across the peninsula from Birdham, near what is now, the Chichester Canal to the open coast at Bracklesham. It is also likely that the Chichester to Sidlesham Way extended to the Roman settlement at Selsey Bill, however the evidence for this is largely circumstantial.[4][10]
- S.403 A.D. 930 King Athelstan to Beornheah, bishop (of Selsey); grant of 4 hides (cassatae) at Medmerry, with woodland at Earnley and meadow outside Chichester, Sussex.[3]
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