2025-10-31-accounts

10 YEARS! Annual Report 2024-2025

Roman Roads Research Association Annual Report 2024-2025

The Annual Report of the Trustees of the

Roman Roads Research Association

2024-2025

Registered charity no. 1163854

Principal address:

Ellerbeck Cottage, Ellerbeck, Northallerton, North Yorkshire, DL6 2RY

https://romanroads.org contact: [e-mail]

Two reproduction Roman beakers, a Nene Valley decorated cup and a folded beaker, by Potted History. And of course a bottle of Bolly…

Roman Roads Research Association Annual Report 2023-2024

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Contents

Contents
From our Chairman, Mike Haken	1
Progress in 2024-25	2
Membership	2
Itinera	3
Talks & Seminars	3
Geophysical surveys	3
Excavation	4
Re-Drawing the Map	4
Moving Forwards	5
Our Aspirations for 2028	5
Strategic Objectives	5
Making a Start	6
Structure, Governance & Management	7
Legal Structure	7
Ensuring our activities achieve our charitable aims	7
Organisational structure	7
Financial review	9
Trustees & Declaration	11

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Our vision & our mission

From our Chairman, Mike Haken

When the late Hugh Toller and I founded the association exactly a decade ago, we had the crazy ambition to one day reach a couple of hundred members. I doubt Hugh could have dreamed that in a decade we would have attracted almost seven hundred members and be seriously anticipating reaching a thousand at some point in the next few years. Neither of us thought so far forward as to even consider what the Association would look like as it celebrated its tenth birthday on the 1[st] November 2025.

He would certainly be proud of all of you, our members, who have helped us become almost certainly the only archaeological organisation in the UK whose membership has grown every single year for the last decade, and continues to do so. I’m sure Hugh would also be proud of our increasing overseas membership, and the fact that we are starting to gain recognition abroad. Indeed, in February, Rob Entwistle and I were honoured to represent the Association at the VII Congresso Internacional de Ingenieria Romana in Zaragoza alongside Dr. Andrew Birley from Vindolanda, the only other member of the British contingent. Believe me, speaking to a full lecture theatre where Albert Einstein delivered his Theory of Relativity, his bust staring across the floor at you, is not something you forget in a hurry!

It still saddens me that Hugh only lived long enough to see the Association make its first baby steps, but his role in getting things going cannot be overstated. So, in Hugh’s memory, our tenth year saw the launch of the Hugh Toller Prize, an award made for the best dissertation or essay on a subject relevant to Roman road studies, by a student at Masters or undergraduate level.

In last year’s Trustees Report, there was reference to the first phase of the Re-Drawing the Map project, which has taken up most of my time over the last two years. I am pleased to announce that this is now almost finished, and subject to checking and tidying up in places, will be ready for release in a basic version some time in December. There is more about it later in this report, but in short it is a digital map of the roads, military sites, and major settlement of Roman Britain, as we currently understand it. Unlike Margary and Codrington’s maps previously, it will not remain static for another 50 years, but will gradually evolve and develop over time. My hope is that it will provide a tool that helps enable the fulfillment of this Association’s aims and objectives, neatly summed up in a paragraph I have used in the two previous reports. As we move forwards during the next ten years towards the fulfillment of our mission, I think it wise to remind ourselves from time to time why the Association exists, so I make no apologies for repeating that paragraph again now:

We promote the study and understanding of Roman roads, infrastructure & heritage in Britain from over 350 years within the Roman Empire. We aim to provide an accessible focal point for our members, our volunteers, local communities, the general public, and heritage organisations both large and small, working together to gain a fuller understanding of the infrastructure and administration of Roman Britain along with the impact it had (and continues to have) on the development of our nation.

Will I still be repeating it in the Annual Report for 2034-35? Quite possibly!

Mike Haken

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Progress in 2024-5

Membership ( from our Membership Secretary, Peter Webb)

Following our last AGM on the 20[th] November 2024, our membership has continued to increase to a record level, standing at 672 as of 5[th] November 2025. We have welcomed 123 new members with one who rejoined after a break, whilst losing 20 through non-payment and 18 who have left us for a range of reasons. Just as last year, membership recruitment is running at over three times loss.

The figures are therefore looking very healthy, not just across England which unsurprisingly predominates, but also in the rest of the U.K. and abroad, where we now have 40 members around the globe.

Country:	Member number	Country	Member number
England	583	Germany	2
Wales	19	Italy	1
Scotland	28	Japan	1
N. Ireland	1	Netherlands	4
Isle of Man	1	New Zealand	1
Australia	5	Portugal	1
Austria	1	Thailand	1
Canada	5	USA	16
France	2
		Total	672

If as last year we divide England’s counties into four geographical groups based upon position, it is interesting this year that the Association has become more broadly spread across the country with a surge in interest in Central and Southern counties:

UK Areas & Isle of Man	2025	2024	Description of counties selected
Scotland	28	28	Scotland
Wales	19	15	Wales
N. Ireland	1	1	N. Ireland
Isle of Man	1	1	Isle of Man
England - North	164	153	above line Mersey to Humber
England - Central	113	96	above line Avon to Wash
England - South East	241	209	Lines: Oxfordshire to Wash/ Oxfordshire to Solent
England-SouthWest	69	60	West and southof line Gloucestershire to Solent
Total:	632	563

Overall membership is in a very healthy position and if the trend over the last two years continues, we should be looking at membership in the high 700s by this time next year.

Just as last year, I would like to thank all members for their unfailing politeness and good humour in dealing with me and I look forward very much to a further year with you all.

Peter

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Itinera

Itinera V was another excellent volume although at a mere 300 pages, a little slimmer than Itinera IV. We deliberately kept the price low this year to help encourage sales, and Chris Webb, who handles distribution, reports that sales are much better so far. At the time of writing, Itinera VI is in preparation and is again expected to be a little smaller again than previous volumes. Printing costs have not risen significantly, and there are certainly no reasons to consider raising the price of Itinera VI , if anything the opposite.We would appreciate members thoughts on whether we should use some of the funds raised through the talks programme to further subsidise the sale price of Itinera , in an attempt to broaden its reach.

Last year we welcomed Prof. James Gerrard on to the Editorial Committee, and he quickly became an invaluable member of the team, somehow managing to squeeze time for Itinera matters into his busy schedule as Associate Dean (Education) and Professor of Roman Archaeology at Newcastle University. We are lucky to have him.

Finally, we must not forget that the journal could not happen without the combined efforts of the 39 RRRA members who devote so much of their time to making the publication a success.

Talks & Seminars

The 2024-2025 season of online talks continued the success of the previous season, with a programme of nine talks kicked off by David Breeze, and as in the previous year, most talks had well over 200 in attendance.

In 2023, our Secretary, Dave Armstrong, volunteered to take over the role of organising the Talks Programme on a very temporary basis whilst we found someone else to take it on. When no-one put themselves forward, he agreed to organise the programme for 2024-2025 as well. Unfortunately, no one put themselves forward last year either so Dave, very reluctantly, agreed to do it one last time for the 20252026 season. Dave has put together yet another excellent programme for the 2025-2026 season, which started with the inimitable enthusiasm of Paddy Lambert of Oxford Archaeology, who we’re pleased to report immediately volunteered (with over 200 witnesses!) to speak next year as well - he enjoys doing our talks so much we didn’t even have to ask him!

Further good news is that Susan Rands has volunteered to take over, once she has completed her PhD next year. The trustees would like to thank Dave for his excellent work, and we’re pleased to add that he will be continuing as Secretary, and as a member of both Strategy and Itinera Commitees.

Finally, we would to thank everyone who has made a donation to support our talks programme over the last year which raised a huge £1,599.50. Your support is very much appreciated. In previous years we have been able to take advantage of a reduced subscription to Zoom as a non-profit organisation, however they have changed their qualifying rules, and we no longer qualify, apparently because they see us as an educational institution! Our Zoom costs have, as a consequence, more than doubled. and after a slight delay, we will be trialing Zoom Webinar very soon.

Geophysical surveys

This year has been quiet, but productive, with work has been continuing at four sites.

The Roman A1 Project - Nottinghamshire. Led by Albert Hills. Work has continued on a small scale, with permission obtained from both Historic England and the landowners to survey the probable fort and the remaining unsurveyed part of the settlement at Ad Pontem (East Stoke) on the Fosse Way in Nottinghamshire. With opportunities for access limited by the crop, this work will continue until summer 2026, after which time we should have a full picture of the site. Similarly. Permissions are in place for a survey of the so called Vexillation fortress at Osmanthorpe, just across the River Trent, although this is

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mainly under grass and is targeted for completion December 2025. It is hoped that the survey will also confirm the road from Ad Pontem, and show its relationship with the road heading towards Bilsthorpe.

Slightly to the northwest of Osmanthorpe, at Camp Hill, the line of the road which was visible on lidar imagery, has now been confirmed by RRRA volunteers in a geophysical survey.

Permission remains in place for a survey near Staunton in the Vale, Nottinghamshire, which will attempt to locate the junction between RR59(x) and the road which is suspected to run to Thistleton, Rutland, before joining Ermine Street north of a few miles north of Great Casterton. Unfortunately, it was not possible to conduct the survey this year in the very short window that the land was available.

RR57a, between Stanion and Brigstock, Northamptonshire. Led by Albert Hills. Work has begun here to attempt understand the very odd kink in this road, but whilst having some interesting results, the road has so far proved elusive. The current strategy is to work along the recently discovered road RR574(x) (often referred to as the Via Paddicus, after Paddy Lambert who led the work at Prior’s Hall for Oxford Archaeology), in order to locate the cross roads where the two roads must meet. This work is ongoing.

RR81a, Derventio (nr. Stamford Bridge), N. Yorkshire. Led by James Lyall, work here has continued in three locations in an attempt to confirm the lines of the two probable roads to York, however both have so far proved elusive. Part of the settlement of Derventio has been surveyed in an area previously surveyed by a now anonymous student at Durham University in 1997. This work utilised three different techniques, and revealed that the settlement is more extensive than previously thought. Work continues.

Excavation

As in the previous year, no excavation was undertaken in 2024-25. As noted in last year’s report, our two previous excavations still need to be written up, as indeed do many geophysics reports, and it has been decided that his must be completed before any further excavation is started. However, we remain keen to develop a programme of future targets for excavation, with the aim that these are funded to enable the prompt completion of reports.

Roads of Roman Britain

As referred to on the Chairman’s Report, the initial stage of the ReDrawing the Map project is almost complete, and a draft version will be released in December 2025, freely available to everyone either as a Geopackage for QGIS users, or as a series of KMZ to import into Google Earth. In essence, the task was to produce a digital map of current understanding, by conducting a rapid assessment of the weight of evidence for each segment of road in Britain, including a quick comparison with lidar and readily available aerial photography where possible. At the time of writing, only Dumfries and Galloway remains to be completed. The mapping is not intended to be definitive, but will provide a solid base which can then be further developed as the ReDrawing the Map project progresses.

The work has involved mapping 3,413 road segments, that’s in excess of 8000 miles of Roman road, and has taken our Chairman, Mike Haken, two years to complete. All known Roman military sites have also been mapped, as have Roman milestones, and the majority of what might loosely be termed Romano-British nucleated settlement. Using this as a starting point, we can now more easily understand the main areas where we have significant gaps or challenges in our understanding of the road network. For example, it is now clear that contrary to previous thinking, the network south and east of the Fosse Way has mainly developed to provide connectivity to settlement, and only the earliest roads seem to be serving a military function. This raises many questions, not least whether or not there was any Imperial involvement at all in this apparently civilian stage of road-building. A comprehensive Project plan for Phase 2 will be developed in the first half of 2026.

As suggested in last year’s report, it is expected that Phase 2 will be a huge task, and take many years to complete.

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Moving forwards

In the Trustees’ report for 2022-2023, our secretary, Dave Armstrong, presented the following aspirations and strategic objectives in what was in effect a five year plan. Where work has already started or is planned, an indication of progress is given below.

Our Aspirations for 2028

• RRRA will be seen as a well-managed and respected Association of enthusiastic individuals/groups researching Roman roads in a variety of ways. - Ongoing

• RRRA will be visible to others through its reputation, on-line and social media presence, annual journal Itinera and the activities/functions it promotes. - Ongoing

• While predominantly made up of non-archaeological professionals the Association will be respected for the high, professional, standards it consistently applies to all of its work. - Ongoing

• RRRA will have created and made available as an open access (OA) resource, a comprehensive, easy to use and accurate set of detailed mapping of the Roman roads of Britannia, which will become the accepted ‘go to’ source for any mapping of Roman Britain. - Nearly complete - due December 2025

• RRRA will have created free open-access resources detailing the construction methods & techniques including details of alignments, LDAs and surveying of Roman roads along with excavation and geophysics advice. - Delayed - preparation to start early 2026

• RRRA will actively encourage members and aligned community groups to research known and new Roman roads to a high standard providing expertise in the form of assistance, resources and training. Ongoing, to be expanded when practicable

• RRRA will make steps to contribute to Empire wide Roman road activities by providing expertise through individuals to projects, resources and technical papers. - Probable contribution to the Itinere project early 2026

Strategic Objectives

In order to achieve these aspirations, a set of specific Strategic objectives have been identified.

1. Placing the Association on a firm organisational footing in terms of business and risk management . This to include succession planning for Chair and Trustees, timely replacement of members in other key roles, centralised cloud storage and backup for information systems, and an annual programme of meetings, including the AGM. - Google Workspace now in regular use by most RRRA officers and our East of England Group.

2. Grow the Membership . Both for the purposes of enlarging the pool of potential contributors, and for increasing subscription revenue to enable other activities. Ongoing - 13% increase during 2023-24, and 13.3% during 2024-25.

3. Involving members in activities . This for the purpose of extending the Association’s core objectives, developing the level of satisfaction in membership, and providing a pool of potential role holders and officers. This strategic objective is linked to an associated objective: - Geophysics surveys ongoing, Eastern England regional group soon to get underway

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4. RRRA Education Initiative , aimed at increasing the knowledge of, and interest in, the study of Roman roads. This will include continuing to produce publications such as Itinera , along with the development of a suite of training and educational guides, programmes of seminars and talks (both on-line and in person), and an outreach programme involving schools and local communities. - Ongoing, more outreach needed

5. Improved management of the Association website as an effective, and up-to-date digital showplace, and access point, for the Association. It should include removal of out-of-date information, verifying of links, and ensuring relevance to current activities. This to be achieved through appointment of a paid web manager, lifting a major administrative and technical burden off the current Chairman. - In progress - completion delayed - now 2026

6. A planned approach to completing the gazetteer ‘The Roads of Roman Britain’ . This is key to the organisation’s purpose of becoming the acknowledged reference point for information on the roads of Roman Britain, developing Margary’s work in the context of present knowledge, making it fit for purpose in the mid-21st century. Actions to be detailed about how this should be achieved, e.g. by creation of digitised road maps (GIS and Google Earth (.kmz files)), and milestones for step-by-step completion of the whole gazetteer. - First stage digital mapping due for completion December 2025

Making a start

In order to begin taking the steps necessary to achieve our Aspirations and Strategic Objectives, several proposals were put to the membership at last year’s AGM. Progress is marked where appropriate

1. The Association will employ a professional web designer to restructure the website and resolve the deficiencies. - In progress but delayed - expected completion early 2026

2. The Association will take steps towards creating regional groups across Britain. - Initiated

3. The Association will form working groups to define (but not necessarily create) what suite of ‘how to’ Guide documents are needed to ensure RR research work is conducted to the necessary high standard - expected commencement 2025

4. Preliminary steps be taken to explore how funding could be sought. - In progress

5. As an intermediate step in progressing the development of the Roads of Roman Britain project (i.e. the gazetteer), the Association will start to produce digital mapping of each Roman road in Britain, easily downloadable from an online catalogue. - almost finished - expected completion December 2025

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Roman Roads Research Association Annual Report 2024-2025

Structure, Governance & Management

Legal structure

The Roman Roads Research Association was established as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in October 2015, and is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission, no. 1163854

Ensuring our activities achieve our charitable aims

The Roman Roads Research Association’s objectives, as set out in our constitution are to advance the education of the public in general about the Roman road network in Britain and promote the study of Roman roads and Roman heritage more generally. In particular, we do this (but not exclusively) by

• carrying out research into the course and construction of individual Roman roads.

• promoting the study of Roman roads and associated sites by community groups and organisations.

• presenting talks, lectures and displays to the general public, schools and community groups

• publishing the results of research and excavation.

The aspirations and Strategic Objectives set out in the previous section of this report will enable us to achieve those primary objectives in our constitution, over the next five years.

As a matter of policy (having considered the guidance on public benefit issued by the Charity Commission, in particular Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011), the Trustees take the view that it is not only important that the results of our activities have public benefit, but that the activities themselves should do so. To this end, it is our policy that whilst our archaeological activities may be professionally led, the bulk of the actual work should be carried out by volunteers, with a focus on local communities, not just our own membership.

Organisational structure

Our Board of Trustees makes sure the RRRA is governed effectively and responsibly. The Trustees are responsible for us delivering our charitable objectives and for ensuring that we are governed in accordance with our Constitution. Despite a desire to recruit two more during last year, that did not transpire with two people approached declining to take on the role. This remains our aim for the coming year.

The trustees delegate some functions of management to committees and working groups, drawn from our membership, in order to deliver our five main activities. Whilst a committee will be run fairly formally with regular meetings having an agenda and minutes, the membership and running of our working groups is maintained on a much more informal basis, always remembering that we are all volunteers often with busy lives outside the RRRA. Our current committees and groups are listed below, although these are very likely to change and develop during the next twelve months.

• The Itinera Editorial Committee currently with five members, is responsible for the preparation and publication of our peer-reviewed journal, Itinera , and is assisted by an advisory panel which may from time to time include specialists from outside our membership. It generally meets monthly, or at greater intervals should that be more appropriate.

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• The Strategic Planning Committee , which currently consists of the trustees along with our Secretary, Dave Armstrong. The Trustees may choose to expand that committee as and when they see fit.

• The Seminar and Talks working group has five members, who ensure the smooth running of all our talks and seminars held online (currently via Zoom). Responsibility for organising the programme rests with our Talks and Seminars Coordinator, a position currently vacant. Susan Rands is standing for election to this post which (subject to election) she will take up on completion of her PhD in 2026. Dave Armstrong will continue to stand in until then.

• Fieldwork working group. A very informal group of four, tasked with organising the RRRA’s geophysical surveys and excavations. Additional members of the group, particularly from southern Britain, are still needed to help ensure a more equal geographical coverage.

• East of England regional group. This is currently our only regional group, led by Geoff Lunn, and has held a few meetings so far. It is still hoped that it will will form the model for other regional groups across the country.

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Financial review

From our Treasurer, Albert Hills

Income

Income
	2024-2025(£)	2023-2024 (£)
Membership Subscriptions	10,520	9,453
Donations & Bequests	1,481	662
Zoom Events Donations	1,599	1,560
Savings Interest	675	-
Itinera(journal) sales	1,675	2,430
Total Income	15,950	14,105

Expenditure

Expenditure
	2023-2024 (£)	2023-2024 (£)
Professional Fees	800	2,080
Equipment Repair & Renewal	-	400
Equipment Purchase (GPS etc.)	5,100	-
_Itinera_Production & Postage	2,021	2,902
Other Printing	-	406
Website Redesign	-	2,699
Internet Service Fees	335	423
Insurance	-	215
Paypal Fees	287	256
Zoom Charges & other fees	864	173
Grants and Awards	100	-
Total Expenditure	9,507	10,030

Surplus
	2023-2024 (£)	2023-2024 (£)
Surplus for the year	6,443	4,075

funds
	2023-2024 (£)	2023-2024 (£)
Unrestricted funds this year end	21,467	15,699
Reserve funds this year end	15,675	15,000
Total funds this year end	37,142	30,699

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General Income and Expenditure

We are pleased to be able to report that the Association created a surplus of £6,443 in the last year, which as with last year are mainly as a result of increased membership numbers. We have had no major donations, although small donations from the voluntary additional £5 on the membership fee together with donations from attendees of our online talks (which doubled from the previous year) have raised £3,180, a 43% increase on the previous year. As mentioned earlier in this report, the decline in sales of Itinera has been reversed following a reduction in the sale price of Volume V, and losses, as was hoped, have been reduced slightly from £472 to £346.

As anticipated, expenditure in 2024-25 was similar to the previous year, although its make-up quite different the previous year, and the expected expenditure of £2,700 on website development did not arise.

Looking forward to 2025-26, the current trend suggests that we can expect membership numbers to continue to rise possibly by as many as another hundred, although as ever, we must not be complacent. As discussed earlier in this report, we will consider reducing the sale price of Itinera slightly further with the aim of further boosting sales. Expenditure is to be similar in the coming year. There are no current plans for any significant purchases, however it is hoped that we can further expand our survey activity with several new sites planned, which will increase our expenditure on professional fees quite significantly. The anticipated £2700 expenditure on website development expected in 2024-25 is now carried over into next year.

Reserves

In order to ensure the maintenance of our core activities, and in accordance with good practice as recommended by the Charity Commission, the Trustees established a reserve fund in 2023-24 holding sufficient funds to maintain our scheduled activities for at least twelve months. It was previously agreed by the trustees that a Reserve Fund of £15,000 be created, using a Virgin Saver 1 Year bond, which along with the previous year’s interest, was re-invested in the same product during 2024-25, and is currently earning 4% p.a..

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Trustees

Michael S Haken Chair (Re-elected at 2023 AGM) Albert Hills Treasurer (Elected 17 November 2022) Robert Entwistle (Standing for Re-election)

Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature

Michael Stuart Haken (Chair)

19 November 2025

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