Mill Lane links Chester Road to Little Aston Road, and is named after the Corn Mill that was situated at Footherly Brook about halfway along Mill Lane. From prehistoric times, what we now call the Chester Road was part of a long-distance trackway which ran from the north-west to the south-east of England, and has been travelled for over 5000 years. In this area the route originates near Brownhills on the old Roman Watling Street, now the A5. It follows the course of the modern A452 southwards, crossing the River Tame beneath the raised section of the M6 to the motorway island at Junction 5. The Chester Road during the Roman period was not part of the network of Roman military roads. It would, nonetheless, have been one of the routes used by many travellers and traders in Roman Britain. Chester Road is now one of the busiest roads in Birmingham.