5. THE MIDLANDS

the top of the escarpment north of Staunton is on this alignment and seems to have been used by the Roman surveyors as a sighting point, since the alignment changes here to head north-west towards Ad Pontem. Heading north-west, there is no trace for 3 km, until faint remains of agger can be seen between SK 7872 4662 and SK 7854 4683 approaching the River Devon, aligned perfectly with the Stainton barrow. The agger can be picked up again north-west of the River Devon at SK 7826 4716 (FIG. 29) and traced intermittently for 1280 m almost as far as the Car Dyke SK 7826 4716, still on the same alignment. These features corroborate observations from the mid-twentieth century of a stony road through the fields discovered during deep ploughing, along with cropmarks seen on aerial photography (Nottinghamshire HER M1437), between SK 794 462 and SK 761 495. The alignment suggests that the road met the Fosse Way just south-west of the Ad Pontem settlement. There can now be little doubt that a Roman road ran between Ancaster and Ad Pontem on two alignments sharing a barrow north of Staunton as a sighting point. There are no traces on LiDAR of the two other roads previously suggested to have run to Long Bennington. The road has been awarded the number RR59(x).