few in the multitude of us who now handle maps are without some vague awe at the old english lettering of the names of ancient things, such as merry maidens, idlebush barrow, crugian ladies, or the plain carn, long barrow, or dolmen. not many could explain altogether why these are impressive. we remember the same lettering in old mysterious books, and in scott’s marmion and wordsworth’s hartleap well. we are touched in our sense of unmeasured antiquity, we acknowledge the honour and the darkness of the human inheritance. most impressive of all, because they recur across many counties, are the names of roads, like the sarn helen of wales, the pilgrims’ way of england. it is part of their power that they have no obvious and limited significance, and were certainly not bestowed by king or minister as names are given by a merchant to his commodities. instead of “london road” we see “watling street”; instead of “north road” there is “foss way” or “ermine street.” but all these make some appeal, however fantastical, to the intelligence.[33] “icknield street” or “icknield way” makes no such appeal. it is the name of two apparently distinct roads: one with a roman look running north and south through worcestershire and warwickshire, the other winding with the chalk hills through suffolk, cambridgeshire, hertfordshire, bedfordshire, buckinghamshire, oxfordshire, berkshire, and wiltshire. i shall confine myself as far as possible to this second road. it runs south-westwards from east anglia and along the chilterns to the downs and wessex; but the name is mysterious. for centuries—since holinshed—it was supposed to be connected with the east anglian kingdom of the iceni: only fifty years ago guest confidently translated it as the warpath of the iceni, and connected it with the names of places along its course, such as icklingham, ickleton, and ickleford. to-day, it is pointed out with equal confidence that “according to philological laws iceni would have produced in england a form beginning with itch- or etch-.” dr. henry bradley cannot believe that there was any knowledge of the iceni in berkshire, but finds it “a natural supposition” that the road was called after a woman named icenhild, though he points out that no such person or name is known in myth or history.
it is a pleasure to see a learned man of the twentieth century thus playing at the invention of a twilight deity as the patroness of an old road, like the helen or elen of wales. two hundred years ago his invention would have been wholly serious and generations of equally serious and less inventive[34] antiquaries would have followed him. there have been other explanations. camden, at the same time as holinshed, accepted the connection with the iceni, but “what the origin of the name should be,” he says in his suffolk, “as god shall help me, i dare not guess, unless one should derive it from the wedgy figure of the county, and refer to its lying upon the ocean in form of a wedge. for the britons in their language call a wedge iken....” john aubrey had it from “mr. meredith lloyd” that “ychen is upper, as to say the upper country or people,” and that “ychen” also signifies “oxen.” wise, in 1738, linked it with the name of agricola, because of the significant core of ick, or in the form “ryknield,” rick. willis, in 1787, said that the road took its name from the itchen, believing that it began at southampton and went parallel to that river to winchester; and that iken-eld was the saxon name for the old iken street. the poet william barnes, lover of ancient britons, said that it might come from a word meaning high or upper, either because it was “an upcast way” or because it was the “upper or eastern road,” while ryknield seemed to him to come from a word meaning a trench, and therefore a “hollow way.” and still nobody knows or believes that anybody else knows. the name, therefore, throws no light at present on the use or history of the road.
much has been written about the icknield way by antiquaries from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. most of them regarded the road as one of the four royal roads or roman roads of britain,[35] on the authority not of local evidence and direct examination, but of half-mythic laws and histories. the earliest of these are “the laws of edward the confessor.” here four roads are mentioned—watlinge strete, fosse, hikenilde strete, and erminge strete—two of them extending across the breadth of the land and two throughout the length; and travellers on them were protected by the king’s peace. but liebermann assigns as a probable date to these laws a year between 1130 and 1135: pollock and maitland, in their history of english law, condemn the work as a compilation of the last years of henry i; having something of the nature of a political pamphlet and being adorned with pious legends, “its statements, when not supported by other evidence, will hardly tell us more than that sane men of the twelfth century would have liked these statements to be true.” the french version of the “laws of william the conqueror” is almost word for word the same as the laws of the confessor in the matter of the royal roads: the latin version omits hykenild strete. roger de hoveden, in 1200, uses almost the same words: so does henry of huntingdon in 1130, except that he describes the icknield way as going out of the east into the west.
mr. harold peake suggests to me that these writers may all have had as their inspiration the brilliant geoffrey of monmouth, who wrote the history of the british kings in the early twelfth century. he tells us, in language not more credible than that of “the dream of maxen” in the mabinogion, that[36] king belinus commanded four roads to be made over the length and breadth of the island:—
“especially careful was he [king belinus] to proclaim that the cities and the highways that led unto the city should have the same peace that dunwallo had established therein. but dissension arose as concerning the highways, for that none knew the line whereby their boundaries were determined. the king therefore, being minded to leave no loophole for quibbles in the law, called together all the workmen of the whole island, and commanded a highway to be builded of stone and mortar that should cut through the entire length of the island from the cornish sea to the coast of caithness, and should run in a straight line from one city unto another the whole of the way along. a second also he bade be made across the width of the kingdom, which, stretching from the city of menevia on the sea of demetia as far as hamo’s port, should show clear guidance to the cities along the line. two others also he made to be laid out slantwise athwart the island so as to afford access unto the other cities. then he dedicated them with all honour and dignity, and proclaimed it as of his common law, that condign punishment should be inflicted on any that should do violence to other thereon. but if any would fain know all of his ordinances as concerning them, let him read the molmutine laws that gildas the historian did translate out of the british into latin, and king alfred out of the latin into the english tongue.”
this great north-and-south road is like ermine[37] street, the slantwise roads might be watling street and the foss way, and that across the width from menevia to “hamo’s port,” the icknield way. as geoffrey makes one road go from the cornish sea to caithness, so henry of huntingdon takes his fosse way from totnes to caithness. henry, as is known, had read part or all of geoffrey’s book before it was given to the world and made an abstract of it; and the romancer had warned him to be silent as to the british kings, because he had not that book in the british tongue, brought from brittany by walter, archdeacon of oxford, and translated into latin by geoffrey himself. here, as usual, it can safely be said that geoffrey’s words are not pure invention; but what his authority in writing or tradition may have been appears to be undiscoverable. he may have used some tradition which was the basis also of the account of the empress helen’s road-making in “the dream of maxen.” he may have used the so-called laws of dynwal moel mud—“before the crown of london and the supremacy of this island were seized by the saxons”—who measured the length and breadth of the island, in order “to know its journeys by days.” (laws and institutes of wales: vendotian code.) henry of huntingdon may well have been a meek adapter of geoffrey’s majestic statements, and some local knowledge of his own may have helped him to put names upon the roads of belinus. to this second road from st. david’s (menevia) to hamo’s port or southampton he gives the name of ichenild or ikenild. walter map, in de nugis curialium (circa 1188),[38] speaks of canute holding london and the land beyond hickenild, and edmund the rest; the anglo-saxon chronicle says that edmund had wessex and canute the “north part” or mercia; and these two together help to define the road.
whether henry of huntingdon’s history owed anything to geoffrey, robert of gloucester’s metrical chronicle (circa 1300) certainly did, for he refers to belinus as the road-maker; but, like henry, he calls the road from totnes to caithness the fosse. of the icknield street he says that it went from east to west, and also, apparently, that it was the road from st. david’s to southampton through worcester, cirencester, and winchester. a writer of circa 1360, ralph higden, mentions belin, and he gives two theories about the fosse, but evidently himself knows nothing. he calls the east-and-west road from st. david’s to southampton watling street. his fourth road goes from south to north, from st. david’s, by worcester and birmingham, lichfield and derby, chesterfield and york, to tynemouth; and its name varies in different manuscripts from rikenildstrete to hikenilstrete. guest has pointed out that higden was following geoffrey. in the eulogium historiarum (1362) this road goes from south to north from st. david’s to tynemouth, and is called once belinstrete, and three times hykeneldstret or hikeneldstret. the author does not mention ermine street, but two belinstretes, the other going from st. david’s to southampton. it is likely that none of these men except geoffrey and perhaps henry could have mapped the roads.
the one map of the period showing the roads is such as they might have been expected to make. it belongs probably to the thirteenth century and was reproduced by hearne, from a british museum manuscript, in vol. v of his edition of leland’s itinerary (1710). it shows the four roads by means of lines and a brief description—his fosse going in the approved manner from totnes to caithness, the ermine street due north and south, the watling street from south-east to north-west. ykenild street goes straight across from west to east. the artist’s description of this as of the other roads is almost word for word from henry of huntingdon. but there are these differences and additions: the western extremity of the icknield way is not called st. david’s, but salisbury, which is thus placed due north of totnes where st. david’s should be; the eastern—or, as he calls it, the southern—is st. edmunds. at the point of intersection with watling street he writes “dunstaple,” which is accurate. thus he is original only in his description of the icknield way. in putting “meridies” by st. edmunds he made a slip due to his drawing the map with its north end on the right side. it is impossible to decide the extent of his mistake in marking salisbury at the west end of the road. he may have believed that it went to salisbury, but have been afraid to deviate from the received opinion that it was an east-and-west road; or he may simply have put salisbury in mistake for st. david’s. giving bury st. edmunds as the eastern termination suggests local knowledge which[40] the accurate position of dunstable confirms. he may have been a man of the eastern counties who thought that salisbury was not only the end of the road, as travellers told him, but a city in the west.
holinshed, in his chronicles (1586), mentions geoffrey as the authority for the origin of the four great roads, and, after quoting him, goes on to describe an “ikenild or rikenild” beginning somewhere in the south and going through worcester, birmingham, and chesterfield to the mouth of the tyne. “i take it,” he says, “to be called the ikenild, because it passed through the kingdome of the icenes. for albeit that leland and others following him doo seeme to place the icenes in norffolke and suffolke; yet in mine opinion that cannot well be doone, sith it is manifest by tacitus that they laie neere unto the silures, and (as i gesse) either in stafford and worcester shires, or in both, except my conjecture doo fail me.” here it is to be noticed, first, that he gives ikenild and rikenild as alternative names of one road and, second, that he sees the resemblance between “ikenild” and “iceni.” he has evidently thought about the matter, but he shows no trace of local knowledge or curiosity. camden (1586) also only mentions the road in his introduction to the subject of the iceni; though he has to speak of many places touched by the road, he ignores the fact, if he ever knew it. the poet drayton, in his polyolbion (1616), substitutes “michael’s utmost mount” for totnes at the south end of the fosse way, and takes watling street from dover to “the farth’st of fruitful anglesey,”[41] and he writes like a warwickshire man of the country where those two roads cross (song xiii, ii, 311 et seq.; song xxvi, ii, 43 et seq.). in the “sixteenth song” of polyolbion he makes watling sing of herself and her “three sister streets”:—
since us, his kingly ways, mulmutius first began,
from sea again to sea, that through the island ran.
which that in mind to keep posterity might have,
appointing first our course, this privilege he gave,
that no man might arrest, or debtors’ goods might seize
in any of us four his military ways.
having sung of the fosse, watling continues:—
but o, unhappy chance! through time’s disastrous lot,
our other fellow streets lie utterly forgot:
as icning, that set out from yarmouth in the east,
by the iceni then being generally possest,
was of that people first term’d icning in her race,
upon the chiltern here that did my course imbrace:
into the dropping south, and bearing then outright,
upon the solent sea stopt on the isle-of-wight.
“rickneld” he takes from st. david’s to tynemouth.
it is very clear that drayton had read geoffrey or a disciple. the notes to polyolbion reveal the fact that selden accepted molmutius and his laws. “take it upon credit of the british story” are his words. he accepted also king belin and the making of the four roads; but having noticed that authorities vary as to their courses and even their names, he is content to say, “to endeavour certainty in them were but to obtrude unwarrantable conjecture, and abuse time and you.” evidently he knew these roads as a whole neither from personal know[42]ledge nor from contemporary report, but only from books. had he known anything he would have betrayed it, for he digresses to tell the little that he knows of “stanstreet in surrey.”
drayton apparently knew more, though perhaps all his knowledge was not available for verse. he is the first to distinguish clearly between the ricknield and the icknield street. he takes the icknield way from yarmouth to the solent; the definite “yarmouth,” now for the first time connected with the road, the use of the variant icning, the connection with the chilterns, the crossing of watling street—all suggest local knowledge. here more than ever it is to be wished that drayton had either written his book in prose or had given his authorities and his actual notes of local lore. he was a great lover of england and of wales, and could have written one of the finest prose books of the seventeenth century had he put down what he knew without ramming it into the mould of rhyme.
of all these men except drayton and the man who drew the map, none betrays personal knowledge of the road. they are all writing of something either too generally known to need explanation or of something which they know only from other writers. all their words together hardly do more than prove that there was or had formerly been a road, known as ricknield or icknield street; or at most that there were or had been three roads bearing those names—one from st. david’s east and then north to tynemouth; a second running south-westwards across the east of england from[43] norfolk to southampton; and a third from st. david’s to southampton. the second seems to owe nothing to geoffrey, and all the local knowledge, such as it is, is so far connected with this.
in 1677 appeared a book by one who had not only heard of the four royal roads, but had met with what he believed to be one of them. this was robert plot’s natural history of oxfordshire. he says:—
“of the four basilical, consular, or pr?torian ways, or chemini majores, i have met with but one that passeth through this county, the discovery whereof yet i hope may prove acceptable, because not described before, or its footsteps any where noted by sir h. spelman, mr. camden, or any other author that i have read or could hear of: whereat indeed i cannot but very much wonder, since it is called by its old name at very many places [ikenildway] to this very day. some indeed call it icknil, some acknil, others hackney, and some again hackington, but all intend the very same way, that stretches it self in this county from north-east to south-west; coming into it (out of bucks) at the parish of chinner, and going out again over the thames (into berks) at the parish of goreing. the reason, i suppose, why this way was not raised, is, because it lies along under the chiltern hills on a firm fast ground, having the hills themselves as a sufficient direction: which is all worth notice of it, but that it passes through no town or village in the county, but only goreing; nor does it (as i hear) scarce any where else, for[44] which reason ’tis much used by stealers of cattle: and secondly, that it seems by its pointing to come from norfolk and suffolk, formerly the kingdom of the iceni, from whom most agree (and perhaps rightly enough) it received its name icenild or ikenild; and to tend the other way westward perhaps into devonshire and cornwall, to the land’s end.”
he adds, with some triumph, that holinshed was much mistaken, but he suspends his judgment because he has read in dugdale’s antiquities of warwickshire of an “ickle-street” in that county. he prints a map showing the road passing, all on its right hand as it goes south, the villages of “kempton,” chinner, oakley, crowell kingston, aston rowant, lewkner, sherborne, watlington, the britwells, ewelme, croamish gifford, nuneham, warren, mungewell, the three stokes, and then south of goring church. he adds that under “stokenchurch hills,” about lewkner and aston rowant, there are two icknield ways, an upper and a lower; and here it may be mentioned that hearne’s diary for september 29th, 1722, has the entry:—
“i went thro’ ewelm, a ? of a mile from which is gouldsheath, and about 2 furlongs east said ewelm passeth the lower hackneyway.”
plot gives a substance to a name. he proves the existence of a road bearing the name of icknield and variations of it, and having a course along the chilterns, like drayton’s road. he does not exaggerate; in fact, he thinks it a poor sort of road[45] when compared with the icknield street through staffordshire, of which he says:—
“i look upon this of staffordshire as the most remarkable of the two, and so to be that iknild street, which is usually reckoned to be one of the four basilical or great ways of england, and not that of oxfordshire, this being raised all along and paved at some places, and very signal almost wherever it goes, whereas that of oxfordshire is not so there, whatever it may be in other counties.”
the next evidence is eighteen years later, and comes from the maps by robert morden illustrating gibson’s edition of camden’s britannia (1695). his map of hertfordshire suddenly introduces us to a road called the icknal or icnal way, running west from royston—perhaps even from barley, three miles south-east of royston—through baldock, then more and more south-east, over the lea to the north of luton, through dunstable, and so, leaving on its right hand toternhoe, edlesborough, ivinghoe, and marsworth, going out of the map with wilston on its right. in the map of buckinghamshire this road is continued through wendover, and passes princes risborough and bledlow. in the map of oxfordshire it is called “icknield way,” and follows a line like that in plot’s map, crossing “grime’s dike,” leaving ipsden and woodcot on its left, reaching the thames on the south of goring church. the berkshire map does not show any road of this or similar name, or any one corresponding to it. nor is the road to be found on the maps of essex, cambridgeshire, suffolk, or nor[46]folk. the extension of it through buckinghamshire and hertfordshire may well have come from the local knowledge of morden or a collaborator. there must have been abundant information of the kind used by plot which escaped antiquaries who were thinking about a royal road, a majestic basilical or consular way, running from st. david’s to southampton, or farther. john aubrey (died 1697), the man to tap this local lore, had nothing to say of any such road in his own county of wiltshire, but he left some rough notes. he connects “iceni” with “ikenild,” and remarks (on the authority of wren) that there were three itchings on ikenel street, including itching stoke in hampshire, where the pilgrims’ way fords the itchen. he says also that a mr. sherwood told him of “an ikenil way from north yarmouth to plymouth; the country people will say, ‘keep along the ikenil way,’ scilicet the wallington hills.” wallington is two miles south-east of baldock and south of the icknield way, and through it ran a parallel road (mentioned in arch?ological journal, vol. xxv) from barley, by therfield, strethall, sandon, and wallington to clothall; but the term “wallington hills” does not exclude the icnal way marked in morden’s map. the precise north yarmouth may also have been accurate, and i should be inclined to believe that at that day men sometimes went between plymouth and north yarmouth by a road or chain of roads known through perhaps a very large part of its course by some such name as ikenil way.
a period of antiquarian conjecture and invention was now beginning, with exploration often of an active kind, but usually kept sternly in obedience to speculation. at the end of the sixth volume of hearne’s leland (1710) is an essay supposed to be by roger gale (1672-1744). he has no doubt about “four great roads,” but regards the story of molmutius and belinus as exploded, and says that “nobody now questions but that” the romans made them. he distinguishes, “as does mr. drayton,” between icknield and ricknield, and complains of the old confusion. the icknield way, “which has its rise and name from the people called iceni,” he finds first “with any certainty near barley in herts,” as in robert morden’s map; but he suggests an eastern continuation through ickleton, “and so by gogmagog hills, and over newmarket heath to ikesworth, not two miles south from st. edmundsbury,” and possibly to burgh castle, near yarmouth. returning westward, he describes a course which might have been taken from morden’s map, except that in the neighbourhood of luton it touches streatley instead of leagrave, and goes to houghton regis as well as to dunstable. but having reached buckinghamshire, he cannot find it “anywhere apparent to the eye ... except between princes risborrow and kemble in the street, where it is still call’d icknell way.” these are words which suggest that the eye was not his own. in oxfordshire he leaves the road to plot. at goring and streatley he does not know what to do, because his guides—henry[48] of huntingdon and drayton and others—disagree. he conjectures a continuation to southampton, another through speen to salisbury and beyond, where he has found the name “aggleton road,” locally given to the road near badbury castle, the roman road from old sarum to dorchester. he thinks “aggleton road” can have no connection with ickleton, but he shows no other reason for believing that his roman road is the icknield way.
in 1724 appeared the itinerarium curiosum of gale’s friend william stukeley (1687-1765), m.d., f.r.s., f.r.c.p. here he describes an exploration of the icknield way. he takes it through ickleton and, like gale, through streatley, near luton; he mentions the lovely prospect from the northern sides of the chilterns and a few more place-names. east of ickleton, or his newly discovered roman camp at great chesterford, he speaks of the road going along the boundary between essex and cambridgeshire “towards icleworth in suffolk.” he thinks the road roman. beyond the thames he has no uncertainty like gale. he says straight out that at speen “the great icening-street road coming from the thames at goring ... crosses the kennet river”; also that he found it a little north of bridport going to dorchester, and accompanied it “with no small pleasure.” if he had any reason for calling any part of this road “the great icening street of the romans,” it has never been discovered, nor has anything else confirmed his view, except that leland saw two roman milestones between streatley and aldworth, which have[49] been seen since, but never described except in rumour. william stukeley, m.d., f.r.s., f.r.c.p., who read “oriuna” for “fortuna” on a coin, and so invented the belief that one oriuna was the wife of carausius, was soon afterwards unanswerably questioned and plainly contradicted on matters of fact by smart lethieullier (1701-60) and richard willis. he is chiefly memorable here because the now venerable title of via iceniana was conferred by him on the road which he chose to believe the icknield way. the title, translated back into icknield street, is still generally accepted.
francis wise (1697-1767) found the road where gale had lost it, beyond the ford at streatley. in his book on some antiquities in berkshire he says that it loses its name at streatley, but is “visible enough” to blewbury and known as the great reading road. from blewbury through upton and harwell this road is called the portway, yet he thinks that it may be the icknield way notwithstanding; or, if not, there is an alternative to the south, lost in the ploughland until near lockinge it becomes a raised way called “icleton meer”; while after wantage it is the “ickleton way,” going “all under the hills between them and childrey,” sparsholt, uffington, so under white-horse-hill, leaving woolston and compton on the right, thence to ashbury and bishopstone. he thought that it was making rather for avebury than for salisbury. this road is marked as eccleton street in roque’s fine eighteenth-century map of berkshire, though it is not easy to be certain of the[50] road indicated by the name, except that it runs at the foot of the hills.
richard willis, in an essay posthumously published in arch?ologia, viii (1787), claims to be the discoverer of two roman roads which “fortunately” crossed one another near his house at andover. one of these was the road from southampton by winchester and cirencester to gloucester, and this was, he says, “i doubt not the ikeneld street.” he does not say why he is certain, but his authority or inspiration was probably geoffrey or a disciple. he had an eye for old roads, but too generally honoured them with the name of roman. he noticed the old road leaving his supposed icknield street on the right a mile south of ogbourne st. george, and going north-east to the inn now called “the shepherd’s rest” at totterdown, which is on the roman road from speen to cirencester. among several roads connecting this roman “icknield street” with the ermine street he mentions a road which he calls a causeway, from royston to ogbourne st. george, or at least to bishopston and wanborough. this has been called icknield street, but he will call it the “oxford icknield street,” which, he says, from coinciding with his real icknield street at wanborough, acquired its name. it would be as reasonable to say that london took its name from the london county council, or that julius c?sar took his from julius c?sar scaliger. the unquestionable fact—known to him from morden’s map, from plot, and from wise—that there is a road with the[51] name of icknield way, or a variant of it, between royston and wanborough, he regards as a “stumbling block,” because it stands in the way of theorists less insolent than himself.
lysons’ magna britannia (1806) brings together two more such opposites as wise and willis. in “berkshire” a letter is quoted from a mr. church, surveyor of wantage, describing the berkshire road, where wise had been uncertain, in its eastern half. mr. church writes:—
“the ickleton-way has been ploughed up across wantage east field till it enters charlton (a hamlet of wantage); it then passes through west lockinge. it is lost across mr. bastard’s park in east lockinge, but appears again from that park to ginge brook, in ardington parish. it passes by white’s barn in sparsholt-court manor, and is afterwards ploughed up for some way, but appears again, after crossing the newbury-way, by wiltshire’s and halve-hill barns, in east hendred parish; from thence through the parishes of harwell, west hagbourne, and the hamlet of upton, to the village of blewbury, and through the parishes of aston tirrold, and cholsey, to moulsford on the thames, and thence to streatley; from upton to streatley it forms part of the new turnpike road from wantage to reading.” from upton station to the east edge of lockinge park this road is now an almost continuous series of cart-tracks known—at least, in the neighbourhood of east hendred, which it leaves half a mile to the north—as ickleton street or ickleton meer. this evidence of 1911, [53] confirming statements made a hundred and two hundred years ago, is sufficient to identify that portion of the road as ickleton street. beyond wantage, wise’s description can be applied only to the modern road from wantage to bishopston, or as far as the “calley arms” at wanborough. east of upton the modern road to streatley—the old reading turnpike—has a rival in a series of cart-tracks through blewbury and the astons, and possibly to be connected with the “papist way” near cholsey.
“ickleton meer,” hagbourne hill, near upton, berks.
thus there is traditional authority for giving the name of ickleton street or way to a series of roads in berkshire between bishopston and streatley, and the name of icknield or icnal way to a road leading from royston to goring; and hence a probability that the two were united by the ford between streatley and goring. to this can be added a strong impression that this road came from a norfolk port and went westward to avebury, and thence or by another route into devon or cornwall; but not one writer, except perhaps aubrey’s friend, proves or even implies a contemporary use of this road throughout its course; while drayton and plot suggest that it had fallen into decay in their time.
along with “mr. church, surveyor of wantage,” in lysons’ berkshire, appeared a bishop, john bennet (1746-1820), bishop of cloyne from 1794 until his death. without any argument or evidence he makes the following pronouncement, heralded by the editorial opinion that “his researches have[54] enabled him to speak with certainty on the subject”:—
“the ikeneld enters berkshire from oxfordshire at streatley, where it seems to have divided: one branch by the name of the ridgeway continued on the edge of the high ground by cuckhamsley and white-horse-hill into wiltshire; pointing, as mr. wise observes, rather to avebury or the devizes than salisbury; while the other branch went from streatley, perhaps by hampstead and hermitage, under the name of the west ridge, to newbury, and thence it may be to old sarum.”
at first he seems to misunderstand wise, and to suppose that his ickleton street was a road on the unpopulated ridge and not in the valley past a string of villages, and he goes on afterwards to assert that this valley road is roman and seems to come from a spot near or rather below wallingford. in 1806 the rev. henry beeke (arch?ologia, xv) expressed the opinion that the icknield way crossed the thames at moulsford. as bennet gives no reason he makes no apology. his reason for giving the name of west ridge to a road running east of its fellow must have been that it went through the village of westridge, where doubtless the road was called the westridge way, as the road from chevington is called the chevington way, and so on. he had apparently no reason for choosing the ridgeway except that it came from the same ford at streatley reached by the icknield way at goring. nevertheless, he has been so persistently followed that the ridgeway is now given by the ordnance[55] survey the alternative title of “icknield way,” and also of “roman road,” which even the bishop said it was not; some berkshire people even call the ridgeway the icknield way because it is the “government name”; and “west ridge way” is attached with all the honour of old english lettering to the more easterly road. bennet equals stukeley in the grandeur of his fiction and the veneration which it has earned. in lysons’ cambridgeshire (1808) he takes the road through newmarket, herein coinciding with later-proved facts, but continues it to ickleton on the east of the modern turnpike along a course never yet identified.
men who were not bishops now begin to exercise themselves in suggesting roads which may have been continuations of this ickleton or icknield way. they print their opinions with varying degrees of certainty. in 1829 dr. mason, rector of orford, in suffolk (arch?ologia, xxiii), traces it, “after it leaves ixworth,” to buckenham and thence by two forks to caistor and to burgh castle. samuel woodward, in 1830 (arch?ologia, xxiii), also assumes that it passes through buckenham, ixworth, and bury st. edmunds. in 1833 alfred john kempe (arch?ologia, xxvi) takes it for granted that the road “crossed the kingdom from norwich towards old sarum.” with an “i need hardly observe,” he connects the road with the iceni, and explains it as “the iken-eld-strete, that is, the old street or way of the iceni.” arthur taylor (arch?ological institute: memoirs, 1847; norwich volume) connects the road with norwich castle hill, which he[56] believes to be british. like the ordnance survey map, he takes it through newmarket, kentford, cavenham, lackford, and thetford. like bennet, both woodward and taylor regard the road as a british trackway. but taylor earns his chief distinction by the possession of a deed “apparently of the reign of henry iii,” relating to premises at newmarket and “extending upon ykenildweie.”
in 1856, in the form of a discourse afterwards embodied in his origines celtic? (1883), edwin guest wrote a long account of the icknield way. he mentions as evidence charters of the tenth century referring to estates in berkshire between blewbury and wayland’s smithy, so minute, he says, as almost to be sufficient foundation for a map, but not to enable him to trace the road; for he accepts bennet’s substitution of the ridgeway. north of the thames his earliest evidence is a parchment, possibly of the fourteenth century, relating to the foundation of dunstable priory at a place where the two royal roads of watling and ickneld cross, a place of woods and robbers near houghton. he quotes a “letter testimonial of 1476” proving that this trackway, west of dunstable, was known as ikeneld strete. he takes the road from icklingham and through ickleton and ickleford because that is a possible course and because he believes those names to be connected with “iceni” and “icknield.” what was the one great road described as icknield street in the laws of the confessor he finds it hard to define. but he can find no traces of roman construction in the road. inspired by[57] the map showing salisbury at the end of the road, he suggests that “most probably” it joined the ridgeway east of avebury and continued along its course, as recently described by sir richard colt hoare.
messrs. woodward and wilks, in their history of hampshire (1861-9), are well acquainted with the many theories of the road, and “on the whole see most reason” for agreeing with drayton, but also for giving the name to the roman road from winchester to cirencester and gloucester, or another roman road running north-west of basingstoke. they speak of the allegation that in ancient deeds the road to gloucester is designated as hicknel or hicknal way; but these have not been identified.
c. c. babington, in his ancient cambridgeshire (1883), speaks of the road as easily traced from thetford to kentford, and he regards woodward’s british way from norwich by wymondham and attleborough to thetford as a continuation. but he has no documentary evidence, no tradition, and no local name to support his conjectures at any point between norwich and royston, except at newmarket. he could not find bennet’s road from newmarket east of the turnpike. probably the bishop meant the roads west of westley waterless, past linnet hall, west of weston colville, west wratting and balsham; it is improbable that he did more than fly over them in fancy. he is satisfied that where the parish, and afterwards the county, boundaries coincide with the present road from newmarket it is the icknield way,[58] especially as at stump cross the county boundary follows the sudden turn out of the main road along a little-used lane leading over the cam to ickleton. from ickleton to a point near chrishall grange and a tumulus—where for a mile the lane is a county boundary—it is uncertain; but from that point to noon’s folly he is content with the “nearly disused track,” which near there again becomes a county boundary. thus he connects newmarket and royston by a road of the same character as the well-warranted parts of the icknield way without any evidence but probability.
the rev. a. c. yorke (proceedings of the cambridge antiquarian society, 1903) prefers the road known as ashwell street, which runs for some miles nearly parallel with the supposed icknield way and is most clear from ashwell, north of baldock, to melbourn, north-east of royston. in a lucid and vigorous article he says that “there can be no doubt” that “ashwell street is the original icknield way.” he is willing to give up the name of one road, take away the name from another road which has borne it since 1695, and in one place since henry the third, and give it to the first which has never borne it, so far as he knows. he thinks the so-called icknield way from newmarket to hitchin, roman; just as others think his ashwell street roman, mr. f. codrington, e.g., holding that ashwell street was an alternative course, leaving the icknield way at worsted lodge and returning at wilbury camp.
wilbury camp.
mr. w. g. clarke (norwich mercury, oct. 8, ’04, etc.;[59] knowledge, ii, 99) attempts to connect newmarket with norwich and call the road the icknield way. he suggests a route over the kennett at kentford and the lark at lackford; then to icklingham all saints, and following the boundary of the hundreds of blackbourn and lackford to thetford, having crossed the road from newmarket to thetford at marmansgrave, and that between bury and thetford a few yards north of thetford gasworks, where the remains of a british settlement were found in 1870. he crosses the little ouse and thet where the nuns’ bridges now are. on the other side “the logical and undoubtedly correct continuation of the icknield way” is by castle lane and green lane. a find of celtic and roman pottery at the south[60] end of green lane, old thorns in the fields between green lane and roudham heath, old banks on the heath near peddars’ way, “which it crosses about half a mile from where peddars’ way is joined by the drove,” a “bridgham tradition” of a waggon road over roudham heath, and the battle of ringmore, fought there between sweyn and ulfketel, the find of bronze weapons and flint axes at attleborough, and the supposed british origin of norwich castle hill, take him by these places. from norwich he goes by sprowston, rackheath, wroxham, hoveton, beeston, over the ant by the “devil’s ditch,” or “roman camp,” at wayford to stalham and to happisburgh. except that stalham is near hickling, this route has nothing—no local map, no documents—to entitle it to be called the icknield way.
mr. beloe (cambridge antiquarian society, proceedings, vii) suggests an easterly line beyond newmarket by a supposed junction with the ailesway from newmarket, by brandon ferry and narford to hunstanton.
mr. j. c. tingey (norfolk arch?ology, xiv) agrees that such a junction may have been used, but prefers a line through ickburgh and cockley cley, crossing the wissey at mundford. he also proposes another route from lackford almost to thetford, which he avoids, crossing the ouse on to snarehill, with its many tumuli, because he thinks an early traveller would have done this. then, with no trace of a road, he goes over snare hill to shadwell park, the harlings, uphall, kenninghall to banham, where a[61] street was once called tycknald street (blomefield’s history of norfolk); or he could reach banham from elvedon, barnham, and rushford. after banham he leaves a gap of twelve miles, hastening to swainsthorpe, south-east of norwich, where he has found a hickling lane, called “icklinge way,” in a seventeenth-century conveyance, where it is said to lead to kenninghall. he has also found in blomefield a mention of “the way called ykeneldsgate,” in that parish, dated 1308.
the partly lost line of this lane he has made out through mulbarton; beyond which he is struck by the place-names of keningham, kentlow, and kenninghall, noticing the other similar names on or near the supposed icknield way—kentford, kennet, kensworth (once “ikensworth”), kennett, in wiltshire, and, beyond exeter, kenn and kenn ford. other documents of 1482 and 1658 relating to the next parish to swainsthorpe, stoke holy cross, enable him to extend the road with some probability eastward. they also show that the road was known at about the same time as hickley lane in one parish, and stoke long lane in another. most remarkable of all, he has found in blomefield mention of “the way called ykeneldsgate” in the same parish of stoke holy cross, in 1306. he suggests reaching haddiscoe as his “port in celtic times,” by framingham earl, bergh apton, thurton church, loddon, and raveningham. he sternly avoids norwich as post-roman, and bury for the same reason. at the same time he admits the probability of branches to those places when they became[62] important. thus he shows that he has in his mind one road, with one name, and that something like icknield street, going from sea to sea, not only in the confessor’s time, but before the romans.
it is impossible even to outline the multitudinous conjectures at the north-east end of the icknield way. at the south-west conjecture has been all but silenced by stukeley’s invention of the via iceniana and bennet’s substitution of the ridgeway, both stupefying fictions.
for two hundred years these conjectures have been multiplied and become venerable by repetition. plot thinks that the road might go from norfolk to devon and land’s end. gale fancies caistor and burgh castle at one end, and, as stukeley did, exeter at the other. dr. beeke “supposes” it went from streatley towards silchester, also that it crossed the thames at moulsford. colt hoare speaks of it as connecting old sarum with dorchester and winchester. arthur taylor takes it for granted that it came from “cornwall or some extreme point in the south-west of britain” to norwich and hickling. isaac taylor says that it went from norwich to dorchester and exeter. mr. h. m. scarth conjectures that the road crossing the main street of silchester, which runs east and west, may have been an extension of the icknield way from wallingford to winchester. in social england col. cooper king, following stukeley, takes the road to exeter, totnes, and land’s end; following bennet, he takes it along the ridgeway. elton calls it briefly a road from norwich through dunstable and[63] silchester to southampton, and to sarum and the western districts.
the theorists and conjecturers have done little to ascertain the course of a road which can safely be called the icknield way. by far the greater part of the work has been done by men who used chiefly local tradition. plot in oxfordshire, wise in berkshire, perhaps robert morden or an unknown assistant in hertfordshire. the best of the conjecturers have only linked up the authenticated parts in a probable manner. most have been too busy with their own views to be anything but benevolent to others. but in 1901 appeared one with no theory and without benevolence, professor f. haverfield. in a chapter on “romano-british norfolk,” in the victoria county history of that county, he pronounces that the icknield way is not a roman road; that it has nothing to do with the iceni or norfolk or suffolk; that the name icknield and the names like ickleton and kenninghall of places on the road, or supposed parts of it, cannot, for philological reasons, be connected with the iceni. at present he is unanswerable, though his mind is of a type which commands more interest when it affirms than when it denies.
icknield way, near ipsden, oxfordshire.
since the time of wise little has been done except to add proofs of the antiquity of the road under the chilterns and the berkshire downs. in his day it was known from royston to bishopston. taylor showed that it touched newmarket, but no more. mr. tingey shows that it went through stoke holy cross in norfolk,[64] but little or nothing has been done to fill the gap between his fragment of hickling lane and newmarket. even the road between newmarket and royston depends for its title only on its respectability as a county and parish boundary. reaching the thames there is no certainty of the principal ford; but streatley must have been one, and from there to bishopston the main line of the road is clear enough. a man may follow the whole of this road in a few days, and be upon a beaten track if not a hard road everywhere, except for a few hundred yards near ipsden, and two or three miles from the east side of lockinge park. the two lengths north and south of the thames make a road of uniform character, keeping almost entirely to[65] the chalk, but below the steepest wall of the hills. from dunstable westward this wall on the left or south of the road is an unmistakable guide to the traveller; as far as swyncombe he has only to cling to the foot of the wall and he is on the icknield way. beyond the thames the downs make a guiding wall equally clear and continuous. it belongs to what mr. harold peake, in his “prehistoric roads of leicestershire” (memorials of old leicestershire), calls the “hill-side” type of road, which “winds along the sides of hills just above the alluvium. marshes and low-lying ground are avoided, but small streams do not offer so great an obstacle as in the case of the ridge-roads.” he compares it with the pilgrims’ way from winchester to canterbury, which it closely resembles, except that it keeps always on the northern slopes, instead of the southern, and commands throughout its course views of a wide, fertile valley northward.
until the enclosures and the metalling of roads the ruts and hoof-marks of the icknield way were probably spread over a width of from a hundred yards to a mile, according to convenience or necessity; from century to century its course might vary even more. thus the modern road between kentford and newmarket is at several points some distance from the cambridge and suffolk boundary, which is supposed to follow the icknield way.
a deed already mentioned proves that the road was known in newmarket itself.
beyond newmarket the modern road is marked as the icknield way, but is only a parish boundary,[66] or rather close to one, for one mile in the first eight, and is not authenticated by any known documents. nor is any parallel road in the same direction a boundary line. that it is on an old line of road is certain from the number of tumuli which formerly dotted the surrounding heath. it goes through three dykes, two, eight, and thirteen miles from newmarket, and it has been conjectured both that the dykes defend the road and that the road was made by an invader to pierce the dykes; one antiquary asserts that the fosse of the brent ditch “has evidently been filled up to admit the road.” from a little beyond the eighth milestone and fleam dyke the road is a parish boundary, with very short interruptions between the eleventh and twelfth, as far as the fourteenth, where it becomes the cambridge and essex boundary. turning west beyond the fifteenth, it is followed for some distance by the county boundary, and is thrice rejoined by it, the third time for two miles before entering royston. by this sharp turning to the west it avoids a roman camp at great chesterford, and passes what camden called the “ancient little city” of ickleton, where in his time traces of the “burrough banks” could plainly be seen. near abbey farm at ickleton are the remains of a priory. where it is again a county boundary beyond ickleton, near “a tumulus opened by the late lord braybrooke,” it is a farm road, and continues as such in a clear line through arable land and alongside hedges, until it joins the main road into royston. here it goes over burloes hill,[67] where many indications of ancient burials have been found.
from royston onwards, as has been seen, the road is marked in a map of 1695. it is mentioned, says beldam (arch?ological journal, xxv), in documents of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries among the monuments of royston priory, as “hickneld” and “ykenilde.” there are hut-circles on the heath to the west, associated with neolithic implements. at royston, as at baldock and tring, gold coins of cunobelin have been found; and here the road crosses ermine street. west of royston the road is again a county boundary, and goes for miles between many tumuli. “a small roman habitation” was opened at slip end near odsey by lord braybrooke. at “slip inn” it bounds parishes instead of counties. there is a manor-house and moat at bygrave, and a tumulus on metley hill opposite. here it passes between two unenclosed parishes, bygrave and clothall. it goes along the edge of baldock, where they have found neolithic and bronze age implements and coins of cunobelin and of “icenian type,” and roman urns: here is the crossing of stane street from godmanchester to colchester. for five miles beyond baldock the road is a parish boundary. it touches a camp at wilbury hill, and near it they have found “a great variety of coins of the roman emperors” and a small copper blade, coins of constantine, bones and ashes. ickleford, where it ceases to be a boundary, has produced pal?olithic evidences, and the neigh[68]bourhood of hitchin, a mile south, pal?olithic and neolithic and late celtic. two miles farther on it is a parish boundary for a mile and a half, and then the hertford and bedford boundary to the top of telegraph hill. ravenspurgh castle is a mile north of it on the barton hills. it turns along dray’s ditches and enters the road from barton to luton. here the parish boundary goes straight across, following a lane, to great bramingham farm and, with a break, to chalton, from which the road might have gone through to houghton regis and “the british town of maiden bower,” and to the north of dunstable. but the line of the road is continued from dray’s ditches across the luton road to limbury, and over the lea at leagrave marsh, passing, near the moats and the remains of a nunnery at limbury, the fortification of waulud’s bank, and the scene of many finds of coins and neolithic implements. this line is clear on morden’s seventeenth-century map. a new street called “icknield way” and a footpath lead with recent interruptions into the luton and dunstable road, which is for some time a parish boundary. here it begins to follow under the downs, which have traces of celtic huts.
icknield way, crossing watling street, dunstable.
the crossing of watling street at dunstable is vouched for by dugdale’s ancient parchment relating to the foundation of the priory, and by the map of the four royal roads. between two barrows at dunstable an ancient trackway used to be traceable to the british camp of maiden bower. in the catalogue of ancient deeds (i, [70] ii, iii) there are various references to tenements in the west field or west street extending upon ikenild-strete, viz. between the time of edward iii and henry vi. west of dunstable the direction but not the course of the road is proven by a “letter testimonial” of 1476, where a cross is mentioned standing “in the field of toternho, the which cross standeth in ikeneld stret, to the which cross the way leading from spilmannstroste directly stretcheth and extendeth, at which place there hath been a cross standing from time that no mind is.” toternhoe parish now includes three-quarters of a mile of the supposed icknield way, from the inn at the turning to kensworth common, as far as well head, and between these points the cross may have stood. round about the road here are many tumuli on the open downs, and traces of celtic huts. toternhoe has a camp not a mile from maiden bower, which is in houghton regis. a chalk pit three-quarters of a mile north-east of the “plough” yielded roman coins in 1769. the “ykenyldewey” is mentioned in the description of a piece of land at edlesborough, south-west of dunstable, in 1348 (close rolls, edward iii); and the “ikenyldstret” at eaton bray, close by, in the time of edward ii and richard ii (catalogue of ancient deeds, i, ii, iii). the villages of edlesborough and eaton bray are visible a little north of the road. passing under beacon hill and its tumulus, the road enters one from leighton buzzard to aldbury and wigginton, and out of this road, at points a little[71] north and a little south of the entrance, run two roads marked as the “lower” and “upper” icknield way, keeping more or less parallel courses as far as lewknor, where the lower is supposed to join the upper. neither is a parish or county boundary. at aston clinton the “lower” is crossed and deflected by akeman street, which it enters for a mile in a north-westerly direction. aston has yielded late celtic pottery. at weston turville the “lower” passes, near the manor-house, a place where a roman amphora was found in 1855. akeman street and several other roads cross and deflect the “upper” way. after traversing wendover you have a camp and barrow on balcombe hill, a little to the south. a danish entrenchment comes down to it from swyncombe downs near britwell. it crosses grim’s ditch at foxberry wood. flint implements have been found along its course, e.g. in pulpit wood at great kimble, and at bledlow. at whiteleaf, above monks risborough, and also above bledlow, men have carved the turf into crosses, which may be modifications of much earlier phallic forms. british coins, inscribed and uninscribed, have been found at wendover and ellesborough, roman coins between ipsden and glebe farm. only beyond, where the upper and lower roads are supposed to have united, does the track coincide with a parish boundary, and that but seldom and only for short distances. in buckinghamshire it was known in the year 903, and mentioned in a “record by king eadweard, at the request of duke aethelfrid, who had lost the original deed[72] by fire, of a grant by athulf to his daughter aethelgyth of land at east hrisan byrg, or princes risborough” (cartularium saxonicum, no. 603). it is there called “the icenhylte,” and the boundary of the land in question runs along it as far as “the heathen burials.” through oxfordshire, from chinnor to goring and the streatley ford, the road is authenticated by plot’s map; but routes to the other fords are at present conjectural. streatley meant the longest way round for travellers going west through berkshire, but it offered the driest approaches on both hands and the narrowest possible strip of wet land at the crossing. in summer at least wallingford would attract westward travellers; and there is a thirteenth-century reference in the abingdon chronicle to ikeneldstrete as running from wallingford to ashbury. men using this ford would have turned out of the streatley track at gypsies’ corner; and here, or a mile or two beyond, near ipsden, they could branch to moulsford and the stokes.
beyond streatley there is at first only one road westward on the dry and rising land. this is the main road between reading and wantage, with a fork to wallingford. mr. church, of wantage (1806), pronounced this road to be the ickleton way as far as upton, and his word may be taken to prove at least that this was the local name. for anyone crossing at streatley and going west under the hills, instead of along the ridge, there is no other road; and even from moulsford and wallingford men would be forced, by the river on[73] one side and bad ground on the other, to enter this road at upton, if not at blewbury, or before. the ford at streatley is said to be roman. roman pottery has been found in the river, and coins on the south bank. roman coins by the hundred, dating from 43 b.c. to a.d. 383, have been ploughed up in the neighbourhood. “near aston” coins, a.d. 267-74, have been found. they have dug up roman things in blewbury fields, on hagbourne hill, at hendred, on charlton downs, at wantage, at letcombe regis, in the dragon hill near the white horse, at woolston, and at ashbury. implements of the bronze age have been recorded at cholsey, moulsford, blewbury, hagbourne hill, wantage, letcombe bassett. wallingford has yielded pal?olithic, neolithic, bronze age, and later evidences.
these things, and more that could be mentioned, suggest ancient settlements and communications below the downs. ickleton street would seem likely to have been the main line of travel here, and a series of saxon charters prove that such it was.
a grant of land by edmund to ?lfric, and by him to abingdon, shows that an ichenilde wege went through blewbury in 944, and that the ridgeway was distinct and at some distance from it; a grant in 903 by eadweard to tata the son of ?thelhun and by him to abingdon, one by edgar to ?lfric and by him to winchester in 973, and one by edgar to ?lfstan and by him to winchester in 970, show it at harwell (kemble, codex diplomaticus,[74] nos. 1080, 578, 1273). in the grant of 903 the boundary starts at a brook, the swyn brook, and goes along the harwell way to the icenhilde wey, then up the old wood-way by the east of harwell camp to a warren, and so up to the stone on the ridgeway, then on and back to the ridgeway, and down on the other side of harwell camp to the icenhilde wey, farther down to a spring and an elder bed, evidently in the low land. this shows that the icknield way was a road running between the ridgeway and the lowest land. a grant of land made in 955 by eadred to ?lfheh and by him to abingdon at compton beauchamp (kemble, no. 1172) proves the same. the boundary starts at the ridgeway, and goes to the icenhilde wey, and on to the swyn brook, and back again past a barrow to the icenhilde wey, and up to the ridgeway, and over hills, slades, and a green way back to wayland’s smithy. a grant of ?thelstan to abingdon, of land in woolston, compton, and ashbury (kemble, no. 1129), and another (no. 1168) mention as landmarks ikenilde strete, then what is probably uffington castle, and other places on the downs; then what is probably ?lfred’s castle and two barrows and the ikenilde strete again, and finally a rush bed in the low land. a grant by ?thelwulf to winchester and bishop stigand in 854 of lands at wanborough (kemble, no. 1053) describes a boundary passing downs and coombes to the source of the hlyd (there is a lyde spring at ashbury), along the stream to a ditch, past the dorc[75] stream, the smit stream, and a black pit, over the icknield way at or near some heathen burial place, and so to down country with a white pit, two stones, and a coombe, etc.—and from a study of the district mr. harold peake concludes that “the icknield way crossed the parish very near the modern road which on the ordnance map bears this name, though i fancy it ran originally a few hundred yards to the north.” it is clear, then, that the icknield way ran as far as wanborough between the highest and lowest ground along a course similar to that of wise’s ickleton street. the road mentioned must either be wise’s road or another of similar course which has been superseded by it in name and use, and can hardly be other than that now called on the ordnance map the port way.
thus the road from newmarket—or at least from royston—by streatley to wanborough parish is a venerable and continuous one, which bore almost the same name at its extremities—ykenildeweie at newmarket in the time of henry iii, icenhilde weg at wanborough in 854. that it is icknield street, one of the “four royal roads,” is proved only by its coming out of the east and going westward, and by its crossing watling street at dunstable, as does the ykenildstrete of the thirteenth-century map. unlike the other three roads, the icknield way appears not to have been romanized at any point, and, assuming that it had in the middle ages the importance suggested by its rank with these roads, its primitive character[76] would explain its decay. nothing rescued it as pilgrimages rescued that part of an ancient east-and-west road now known as the pilgrims’ way from winchester to canterbury (the old road, by hilaire belloc). its western object had apparently been so deeply lost in drayton’s time that the poet took it to southampton, though whether this line is to be traced to geoffrey of monmouth’s bold definition or to contemporary usage cannot easily be decided. that this road through newmarket and streatley is the one in drayton’s mind is certain.
of the other roads called icknield street, most, if not all, of them difficult, where not impossible, to connect with this road as continuations or as branches, one is particularly interesting here.
dr. macray’s “ms. catalogue of magdalen college deeds” contains several mentions of ikenildwey or hykenyldewey in descriptions of boundaries at enham, near andover, in hampshire. one belonging to 1270 refers to land “in the east field of enham, on the north of the highway called ikenildwey”; another of 1317 to two acres of land in enham regis in a field called bakeleresbury; “of the which one acre lies between the land of gilbert slyk on either side, extending south to ikenildwe ...”; one of 1337 to arable land in the fields of andover, of which half an acre extends “above hykenyldewey to the east,” between other estates in the north and south, while another acre in the same field extends “above laddrewey to the north.” i conclude from these descriptions that the hykenyldewey[77] here ran east and west, and it is not a region of winding roads. batchelor’s barn and walworth cottages, about a mile east of andover, seem to contain memories of “la werthe,” “la walwert,” and “bakeleresbury.” both the barn and the cottages lie close to the south side of the harrow way, which here goes east and west on its way from farnham to weyhill. walworth cottages are on the east of the intersection of the harrow way and the north-westward roman road from winchester to wanborough nythe, and not a mile south of the intersection of this roman road with the north-eastward port way from old sarum to silchester. between the harrow way and the port way, and in this part of its course almost parallel with them, is a road from stoke and newbury. one of these roads is perhaps the road referred to in the deeds as “hykeynldewey.” the harrow way, which still bears its name in the neighbourhood, is not likely to have been the road. the port way appears to be purely roman. if the road from stoke were the icknield way, it might have connected streatley with winchester and southampton, yet if it went to winchester and southampton, it can hardly have been the road which is several times called ikenilde street in records of the perambulations of the hampshire forests. the survey of buckholt forest, under edward i, for example, contains the passage: “begin at the deneway ... and so always by the divisions of the counties of southampton and wilts to th’ ikenilde street, and thence by the same[78] to la pulle”; and “from pyrpe-mere to th’ ikenilde and so by the same road to holeweye.” this road i cannot identify, but a road touching both enham and buckholt forest would probably reach old sarum.
there is an icknield street, marked as such on the ordnance map, going north from weston sub-edge to bidford, and, after a gap, from stadley north towards birmingham. it goes for some miles parallel to a much higher ridgeway. it leaves the fosse way four miles south of stow-in-the-wold, near bourton-on-the-water, and is the road described by codrington as ricknild street. but codrington refers to a part of it—where the railway crosses it at honeybourne station—as called ricknild or icknield street, and to the lane north of bidford going towards alcester as icknield street. this road, or a longer one in part coinciding with it, was first called icknield street by ralph higden in the fourteenth century. it was one of his four royal roads, and went from st. david’s to worcester, birmingham, and derby. some of the manuscripts of his work called the road ryckneld, which spelling may or may not have been due to the local knowledge of a scribe; both english translators or their scribes retain the r, calling the road rykenildes strete or rikenilde street. mr. w. h. duignan (notes on staffordshire place names) quotes references to this road in the twelfth century—between lichfield and derby—as ikenhilde, ykenild, and ricnelde; in the thirteenth century as rikelinge and ykenilde; in the fourteenth century as rykeneld[79] strete. he also gives instances which seem to prove that there were unconnected roads known as ricknield street in the thirteenth century; and mentions a place now called thorpe salvin, lying on no known ricknield street, but once known as rikenild-thorp. selden found a deed mentioning ricknield street as a boundary near birmingham, and dugdale one of 1223 relating to hilton abbey.
the eulogium of 1362, when it does not call higden’s road belinstrete, calls it hykeneldstret, though when gale quotes it he makes it rykeneldstrete. stukeley calls it “the ricning way,” and complains of plot for calling it icknil way; yet he himself heard it called the hickling street near the crossing of watling street. holinshed calls it “ikenild or rikenild.” in the time of the second and third edwards there were men named after ikenilde or hikenilde strete (pat. rolls) in worcestershire. one of them was a man of alvechurch, which lies west of the road between stadley and birmingham; and there was an ikeneld street in the sixteenth century within the lordship of allechurche in worcestershire.
drayton first distinguished between an eastern icknield street and a western ricknield street. he evidently knew the icknield way along the chilterns, and his words about rikneld street as coming from cambria’s farther shore until the road
“on his midway did me in england meet,”
suggest that he knew the road as a warwickshire man, and that his distinction was not wantonness[80] or the precision of ignorance. gale accuses the road of taking the name of ickle or icknild street without any just title. guest also believes that the western road “gradually attached to itself the name of icknield street” as a famous name to which it had no right. wise, in search of something to help him, suggests hickling as the origin of the name, but knowing of ryknield, he is tempted also by rickley in essex—confesses the temptation—and “must now beg leave to call” the road “the great ickle or rickle way.” this use of rickling reminds me of a woman living in a cottage beside the ridgeway, near chiseldon. i asked her the name of the road, and she said, with some hesitation, “the rudgeway.” i asked why it was so called, and she said she did not know. i asked where it went, and she answered, “oh, over there!”—pointing west, “—to rudge, i suppose,” rudge being near westbury. an antiquary in the gentleman’s magazine (1787) comfortably explains the variation as due to the british particle “yr” prefixed. but no one has found a ricknield or a rickling or any such name along the course of the road from newmarket to wanborough.
it seems likely that icknield, like watling and ermine, was a generic name for a road, whether due to its use by cattle, to professor bradley’s lady icenhild, or to something else. one such road in worcestershire and the west, and another in the east tending westward, were possibly at one time well known as continuous routes over long stretches of[81] country. the two could be connected. ermine street passed through wanborough nythe at the west end of the icknield way from east anglia, went north-west to cirencester, and thence both north-east to stow-on-the-wold where it touched the ricknield street and the fosse way, and north-west to gloucester, and so to worcester or to kentchester and the south-west of wales. another ancient road from near tring, the akeman street, would take travellers on the icknield way due west to cirencester, where they could branch as they pleased to gloucester and wales or the north. thus at both ends of ermine street and akeman street or their continuations there were roads known as icknield street; it is even possible that the whole system was officially given the one name of icknield street, and such a system might fitly be called a royal road. an eastern extension of the road to a dep?t and several ports in norfolk is practically certain, though it has not yet been discovered or satisfactorily reconstructed. a south-western or western extension beyond wanborough is almost equally certain. there is no need to look for a road that is all of one type. without antiquarianism or modern regularity only common and continued travel throughout its course can preserve a road. even during this extended use of it variants will be discovered from time to time and used as alternatives or substitutes. as soon as this use ceases portions of the road begin to decay, and soon those few having the old need for it will have found another way. each kind of civilization doubtless[82] has its own special kind of road, and gradually old roads are so transformed or combined as to form such a road. but invaders or newly organized people have to take what roads they find, unless they have roman will, forethought, and resource to make their own; though by good fortune men suddenly needing a road may find an old one ready as did the pilgrims from the south and west to canterbury who used the pilgrims’ way. men wishing to travel from east to west, especially in the south of england, would have found many tracks and roads of all types ready to be linked so as to form a connection between important points of trade, government, or religion. when it became possible to traverse england safely, meeting foreign faces and strange tongues but subjects of one king, traders and travellers would piece together according to need the old roads which different ages had confirmed—the high and most ancient roads like the ridgeway and the harrow way, late roads skirting the bases of the hills, pure roman roads fearing nothing, and romanized trackways. the icknield way may have been such a combination. the danes might have combined it with the ridgeway in 1005, when they burnt wallingford and went by cholsey and cuckhamsley to kennet. they probably used the road along the chilterns when they burnt thetford and cambridge and turned south to the thames; and other parts of it when they stole inland from their ships through norwich to thetford. sweyn may have gone along it when he went to wallingford, and so over the thames[83] westward to bath, where the western men submitted and gave hostages and he became king of the whole people. giraldus may have trodden it in south wales. at an earlier age, as mr. moray williams has suggested, the icknield way might have been the line of the iceni in their alleged migration westward, after the defeat of boadicea. it should have been imogen’s pathway to milford haven. there are not many early references to the travel upon the road. it would be used chiefly by[84] traders and travellers from a distance. plot remarked that it passed through no towns or villages in oxfordshire, and this, in his day, made it convenient for stealers of cattle. a road used by strange travellers and robbers waiting for them was not a likely one for small settlements and local use. when it was spoken of as the way the oxen go—unless the phrase implied a road along which came oxen from a distance—it may already have been degenerating. guest says: “your guide will talk of the long lines of pack-horses that once frequented the ‘ickley way,’ as if they were things of yesterday; and a farmer in the vale of aylesbury told me ... that in the popish times they used to go on pilgrimage along it from oxford to cambridge.” messrs. jordan and morris (introduction to the study of local history and antiquities) speak of the road as connecting the flint-knappers’ settlement at brandon with avebury and stonehenge: “the men of wiltshire would wish to obtain flint instruments from brandon; men from brandon to have access to avebury and stonehenge.” but wiltshire men would not go to suffolk in search of flints except for a wager.
whiteleaf cross.
the icknield way is sufficiently explained as the chief surviving road connecting east anglia and the whole eastern half of the regions north of the thames, with the west and the western half of the south of england. for the men of norfolk, suffolk, cambridge, bedford, hertford, buckingham, and oxford, it did what the harrow way did for men of kent, surrey, sussex, and east hampshire.
