The Roman road

Roman roads are important for understanding military history and economic relations  in the Roman Empire. It should be noted that Normandy was situated on the periphery of the Roman Empire and was thus marginal to the main road networks. The study of Roman roads is rendered more complex by regional diversity such as the absence of proof of mile or league stones.

The ’Fairy Path’ over the Ormesnil plain would have been  a section of the ancient Rouen-Arques road or the lands occupied by the Celtic Vellocasse people in the south  and the Caltèse people in the north.

There are several clues that point to  the age of this ancient ‘Fairy Path’.

Firstly, its straightness, characteristic of a Roman Road. The Fairy Path was a continuation of a section  discovered in the Forêt Verte (Green Forest) of the present D100 road. There are 20 kilometres of this road north of La Chaussée commune, La Chaussée being one of the most frequent toponyms for Roman roads. The straight line of the ‘Fairy Road’ and the other roads that prolong it are visible from aerial photographs.

Secondly the toponym, the name of the road, would be an indicator of its date; a widely held belief was that these straight roads led to specifically significant  places such as protohistoric sites or water sources (information to be further researched).

In 1962  J. Grivault described the ‘Fairy Road’ in this way: “... formed from two layers of flint with a soft layer of small morainic pebbles (small round bluish pebbles found locally which potentially came from Hastot-Mesnil where there were enormous excavations) In effect, it seems that these road builders used local resources from the areas they crossed. According to P.C. These pebbles were found in fields and could have been displaced for the road building. The top layer of flint is still visible in some fields, notably near the entrance to Bois de la Motte.