Akeman Street is a Roman road in southern England between the modern counties of Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire. It is approximately long and runs roughly east–west.
Akeman Street linked Watling Street just north of Verulamium (near modern St Albans) with the Fosse Way at Corinium Dobunnorum (now Cirencester). Evidence suggests that the route may well have been an older track, metalled and reorganised by the Romans. Its course passes through towns and villages including Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring, Aylesbury, Alchester (outside modern Bicester), Chesterton, Kirtlington, Ramsden and Asthall.
Parts of the A41 road between Berkhamsted and Bicester use the course of the former Roman road, as did the Sparrows Herne turnpike between Berkhamsted and Aylesbury. A minor road between Chesterton and Kirtlington also uses its course. Other parts are in use as public footpaths, including a stretch between Tackley and Stonesfield that is part of the Oxfordshire Way.
Name
The name Akeman is derived from Aquamannia – an earlier name for Bath, Somerset. The name element Aqua is from the Roman name for Bath, Aquæ Sulis ("the waters of Sulis"). The name element mannia is from Old English mannian ("to man, garrison").
The toponym for Akeman Street might be: Roman road to Aquamannia Roman road to Bath
See also
Akeman Street (Cambridgeshire) Roman Britain Roman roads in Britain RAF Akeman Street