WATLING STREET

Roman road in England that ran from Dover west-northwest to London and thence northwest via St. Albans (Verulamium) to Wroxeter (Ouiroknion, or Viroconium). It was one of Britain's greatest arterial roads of the Roman and post-Roman periods. The name came from a group of Anglo-Saxon settlers who called Verulamium by the name of Wtlingaceaster. This local name passed to the whole of the Roman road (Wclinga strt) by the 9th century. The tendency to give the name to other main roads is postmedieval and is often mere antiquarianism.