The Roman road beneath your feet

Next time you travel along the A404 Harrow Road, consider this: you may be following a route laid out by Roman engineers nearly two thousand years ago. The road linked London to the pottery kilns at Brockley Hill, known to the Romans as Sulloniacis. From there, a branch is thought to have run westwards, skirting the foot of Harrow on the Hill. The evidence is fragmentary but persuasive: straight alignments that ignore later field boundaries, scatters of Roman pottery and tile in ploughed fields, and the occasional coin.

More dramatic discoveries have surfaced, too. In the nineteenth century, a Roman villa with a bath house was unearthed at Harrow Weald. Roman tiles were later reused in the walls of St Mary's Church on the hill, a common medieval practice. So when you stand in the churchyard, you are literally touching Roman fabric. The road itself has long gone under tarmac, but its course can still be traced on old maps and in the boundaries of modern properties.

Medieval fields under modern streets

After the Romans left, the area was farmed by Anglo-Saxons and then by medieval peasants. Harrow's manor had several large open fields, farmed in strips. Each year, some strips were left fallow, others planted with wheat, barley or beans. The system left its mark: ridge and furrow, a corrugated pattern of raised strips and drainage furrows. You can still see it in places where the land has not been ploughed since. Look for it in the lower slopes of Harrow on the Hill, in the grounds of some schools, and along the edges of Stanmore Common. The best time to spot it is low winter sunlight, when shadows reveal the ridges.

Modern streets often follow medieval field boundaries. The curving line of a road, a long narrow garden, or a change in fence direction can all be clues. Enclosure maps and tithe maps from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries show these strips being consolidated into the fields we recognise today. Compare them with a modern map and you will see how the past persists.

Reading the landscape: place names and boundaries

Place names are a free archaeological tool. Harrow probably comes from the Old English hearg, meaning a heathen temple or shrine. That suggests a pre-Christian religious site on the hill, later replaced by the church. Wealdstone combines weald (forest) and stone (a boundary marker). Pinner may derive from pinn, a hill or peg. Kenton is cyne-tun, a royal estate. Stanmore means stony pool. These names appear in medieval charters and wills, helping archaeologists date settlements.

Parish boundaries are another guide. Harrow's boundary followed streams and ancient tracks. Some boundary stones still stand, and you can walk the line on public footpaths. The boundary between Harrow and Wealdstone, for example, runs along a stream that once fed medieval fishponds.

How archaeologists piece it together

Archaeologists rarely dig at random. They start with desk-based research: old maps, aerial photographs, and records of previous finds. Then they use non-invasive methods. Geophysical survey, especially magnetometry, can detect ditches, kilns and pits without breaking ground. Field walking involves walking ploughed fields in grids, collecting pottery and flint. LiDAR (laser scanning) reveals earthworks hidden under trees. Finally, test pitting – small pits dug by volunteers – can confirm what lies beneath.

In Harrow, developer-funded excavations ahead of new housing have uncovered medieval rubbish pits, Roman pottery and even a possible trackway. Local history groups run occasional digs and surveys. If you find a sherd of pottery or a coin, record it with your local museum service; every find adds to the map.

Seeing the past for yourself

You do not need a trowel to explore Harrow's distant past. Here are some practical steps:

• Visit St Mary's Church, Harrow on the Hill. Look for Roman tiles in the tower and nave walls.
• Walk the A404 and note how straight it runs between Sudbury and Harrow. That is Roman engineering.
• Check the tithe map of 1840 for Harrow at your local archive. Compare field shapes with today's streets.
• Hunt for ridge and furrow in parks and playing fields on a frosty morning.
• Join a guided walk with a local heritage group. They often point out things you would otherwise miss.

The past is not buried deep. It is in the curve of a road, the name on a street sign, the undulation of a playing field. Once you start looking, Roman roads and medieval fields are everywhere under your feet.