Icknield Way

Coordinates: 51°50′40″N 0°36′12″W / 51.8445°N 0.6034°W / 51.8445; -0.6034

Icknield Way near Lewknor in Oxfordshire

The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern England. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills.

Background

It is generally said to be one of the oldest roads in Great Britain, being one of the few long-distance trackways to have existed before the Romans occupied the country, of which the route can still be traced. However, this has been disputed, and the evidence for it being a prehistoric route has been questioned.^[1][2][3][4]

The name is Celto-British in derivation, and may be named after the Iceni tribe, who may have established this route to permit trade with other parts of the country from their base in East Anglia. It has also been suggested that the road has older prehistoric origins. However, the name is also said to have been initially used for the part to the west and south (i.e. south of the River Thames) but now refers usually to the track or traces north of the Thames.

From ancient times, at least early as the Iron Age period (before the Roman invasion of 43 AD) and through Anglo-Saxon times, it stretched from Berkshire through Oxfordshire and crossed the River Thames at Cholsey, near Wallingford.

Early documentary evidence

The earliest mentions of the Icknield Way are in Anglo-Saxon charters from the year 903 onwards. The oldest surviving copies were made in the 12th and 13th centuries, and these use the spellings Ic(c)enhilde weg, Icenhylte, Icenilde weg, Ycenilde weg and Icenhilde weg. The charters refer to locations at Wanborough, Hardwell in Uffington, Harwell, Blewbury and Risborough which span a distance of 40 miles from Wiltshire to Buckinghamshire.^[5]

The "Four Highways" of medieval England

The Icknield Way was one of four highways that appear in the literature of the 1130s. Henry of Huntingdon wrote that the Ermine Street, Fosse Way, Watling Street and Icknield Way had been constructed by royal authority. The Leges Edwardi Confessoris gave royal protection to travellers on these roads, and the Icknield Way was said to extend across the width of the kingdom. Geoffrey of Monmouth elaborated the story by saying that Belinus had improved the four roads so that it was clear that they were the protected highways.^[1]

Around 1250, the Four Highways were shown by Matthew Paris on a diagramatic map of Britain called Scema Britannie. The Icknield Way is depicted by a straight line from Salisbury to Bury St Edmunds which intersects the other three roads near Dunstable.^[6]

In the 14th century, Ranulf Higdon described a different route for the Icknield Way: from Winchester to Tynemouth by way of Birmingham, Lichfield, Derby, Chesterfield and York.^[1] This route includes the Roman road running from Bourton-on-the-Water to Templeborough near Rotherham, which is now called Icknield Street (or Ryknild Street) to distinguish it from the Icknield Way.

The route

In many places the track consists or consisted of several routes, particularly as it passes along the line of the escarpment of the Chilterns, probably because of the seasonal usage, and possibly the amount of traffic especially of herds or flocks of livestock.

To the west the track can be detected below the escarpments of the Wessex Downs. Near Wantage, the route along the ridge of the Downs is known as The Ridgeway, and the name Icknield Way is applied to a parallel lowland route above the spring-line at the northern edge of the chalk.^[7] Between Lewknor and Ivinghoe there are two parallel courses known as the Lower Icknield Way and the Upper Icknield Way.^[8] In Cambridgeshire, Street Way (Ashwell Street), Ditch Way and others have been put forward as variant routes, possibly for use in summer or winter.^[1]

Many modern roads follow the Icknield Way, for example the B489 from Aston Clinton to Dunstable and the A505 from Baldock to Royston. In some places, especially from the east of Luton in Bedfordshire to Ickleford (so named from the Way crossing a stream) near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, the route is followed by minor roads, and is not distinguishable at all in many places, except by landscape features such as barrows and mounds which line the route, and indentation presumably from ancient and frequent use. It could be described as a belt studded with archaeological sites found at irregular intervals.

The Icknield Way used to form part of the boundary between Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, and at one time Royston was cut in two by this boundary. Royston is where the Icknield Way crosses Ermine Street.

In the south-west some writers take the Way to Exeter, while others only take it as far as Salisbury. To the north-east, Icklingham, Suffolk, and Caistor-by-Norwich, Yarmouth and Hunstanton, Norfolk have all been proposed as the destination.^[1]. In support of the western route, a road at Dersingham near Hunstanton was named Ykenildestrethe and Ikelynge Street in the 13th century.^[9].

Modern paths

A modern long-distance footpath, the Icknield Way Path, roughly follows the route of the Icknield Way from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Knettishall Heath in Norfolk.^[10][11] It connects with: Angles Way, Bunyan Trail, Chiltern Way, Harcamlow Way, Hertfordshire Chain Walk, Hertfordshire Way, Lea Valley Walk, Peddars Way, Ridgeway, Roman Road Link, Stour Valley Path and Swans Way. The trail was devised by the Icknield Way Association and supported by the Ramblers Association. It was part of a plan to achieve National Trail status for the whole length of the ancient trackways linking the South Coast and the Wash. The path was recognised by local authorities in 1992.^[12]

The Ridgeway is a National Trail that follows the western course, and Peddars Way runs eastwards from Knettishall Heath to Hunstanton in Norfolk. The author Ray Quinlan has combined the Wessex Ridgeway, The Ridgeway, the Icknield Way Path and Peddars Way to form a path that he calls the Greater Ridgeway running from Lyme Regis in Dorset to Hunstanton.^[13]

See also

• Roman Britain
• Roman roads in Britain
• Neolithic Age

References

External links

• Article about Anglo Saxon Wantage with maps indicating street layout with the Icknield Way and a street with the name (Ickleton) clearly derived from it.