"
Such a course for Ryknield Street would make it the connection between
the north, running through the Roman Alauna (Alcester) to Glevum
(Gloucester). It must be remembered that there was, in Roman times,
nothing at Evesham to take the road there, for Evesham did not exist
as a town until long after the Romans left. Leland says that there was
"noe towene at Eovesham before the foundation of the Abbey," which
took place about A.D. 701, about 250 years later, and there was no
road from Alcester to Gloucester except the one we are following.
Another important road passed the northern extremity of Blackminster
and crossed the road just referred to so that the Blackminster area
was situated at the junction. This was the old road from Worcester,
passing the present site of Evesham a mile or more to the north,
crossing the Avon at Twyford, and the Ryknield Street at Blackminster,
and going onwards through Chipping Campden towards London.
The following passage in the _Annals_ of Tacitus, Book XII., chapter
xxxi., _Ille (Ostorius) ... detrahere arma suspectis, cinctosque
castris Antonam et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere parat_, which refers to
the fortification of the Antona and Severn rivers by the Roman general
P. Ostorius Scapula, has been the subject of various readings and
controversy about the word _Antona_, no river of that name having been
identified.
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