CENTURIATION IN ESSEX. 217
It is well known that most of the parishes have changed their
bounds but little since their inauguration in Saxon times,
when they were laid out with some regard to the advantages
accruing from rivers and Roman roads. Many were so placed
that the existing Roman roads ran through the centre of the
parish, other roads of a similar date sometimes forming
boundaries. In this fashion many parishes should show some
indication of a rectangular pattern similar to that of neighbouring
Roman roads. With certain exceptions the Essex parishes fail
Fig. 3.—Rectangulation in Parishes near Horndon.
to show a strong relationship to many of the roads of the O.S.
map. In the three major areas of "centuriation," however,
the parishes show a striking and regular rectangular plan
apparently related to many of the suggested roads (figure 3).
It therefore seems that many of the roads of the centuriation
map existed in Roman times, and it is submitted that the map
in figure 1 indicates the main areas cultivated during the Romano-
British times. It seems unlikely that any later people laid out
roads of a similar nature, nor does it seem probable that folk
would deliberately destroy Roman roads except locally for