122 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Essex still appear to retain remnants of the rectangular pattern
laid out by the Roman surveyors in order to divide up the
arable land in existence at the time. Although some doubt
has been cast on the existence of centuriation in Britain,3 it
seems very probable from an inspection of old road maps that
we have in the present-day nexus of roadways some remaining
evidence of this characteristic. Roman method of dividing the
arable land into workable areas, rectangular in shape. It
Fig. 3. Probable Vestiges of Roman Centuriation in Essex.
appears that the size of the main rectangular areas approximated
to a square having a side of nine furlongs. These "possessae,"
as they were called, were subdivided into smaller areas with a
side about 381 yards in length. This smaller area was known
as a "centuria." It seems significant that many of the roads
in certain regions of Essex exhibit this rectangular pattern
and repeat the nine furlong interval and its subdivisions. All
such roads, apparently showing evidence of centuriation in the
vicinity, were traced out on a small-scale blank map (Fig 3).
5 An account of the method of Land Division by centuriation appears in Middlesex in
British, Roman and Saxon Times, by Montagu Sharpe. See also English Historical Review,
1918.