TheIcknield Way is anancient trackway in southern and eastern England that runs fromNorfolk toWiltshire. It follows thechalkescarpment that includes theBerkshire Downs andChiltern Hills.
It is generally said to be, withinGreat Britain, one of the oldest roads the route of which can still be traced, being one of the few long-distance trackways to have existed before theRomans occupied the country. However, this has been disputed, and the evidence for its being a prehistoric route has been questioned.[1][2][3][4]
The name is Celto-British in derivation, and may be named after theIceni tribe. They may have established this route to permit trade with other parts of the country from their base inEast Anglia. It has also been suggested that the road has older prehistoric origins. The name is also said to have been initially used for the part to the west and south (i.e. south of theRiver Thames) but now refers usually to the track or traces north of the Thames.
From ancient times, at least as early as theIron Age period (before the Roman invasion of 43 AD) and through early medieval times, it stretched fromBerkshire throughOxfordshire and crossed theRiver Thames atCholsey, nearWallingford.
The earliest mentions of the Icknield Way are inAnglo-Saxoncharters from the year 903 onwards. The oldest surviving copies were made in the 12th and 13th centuries, and these use the spellingsIc(c)enhilde weġ,Icenhylte,Icenilde weġ,Ycenilde weġ andIcenhilde weġ. The charters refer to locations atWanborough,Hardwell inUffington,Lockinge,Harwell,Blewbury andRisborough, which span a distance of 40 miles (64 km) fromWiltshire toBuckinghamshire.[5][6]
The Icknield Way was one of four highways that appear in the literature of the 1130s.Henry of Huntingdon wrote that theErmine Street,Fosse Way,Watling Street and Icknield Way had been constructed by royal authority. TheLeges 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 thatBelinus had improved the four roads so that it was clear that they were the protected highways.[1]
Around 1250, the Four Highways were shown byMatthew Paris on a diagrammatic map of Britain calledScema Britannie. The Icknield Way is depicted by a straight line fromSalisbury (i.e.,Old Sarum) toBury St Edmunds which intersects the other three roads nearDunstable.[7]
In the fourteenth century,Ranulf Higdon described a different route for the Icknield Way: fromWinchester toTynemouth by way ofBirmingham,Lichfield,Derby,Chesterfield andYork.[1] This route includes the Roman road running fromBourton-on-the-Water toTempleborough nearRotherham, which is now calledIcknield Street (orRyknild Street) to distinguish it from theIcknield Way.
In many places the track consists or consisted of several routes, particularly as it passes along the line of theescarpment of theChilterns, 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 theBerkshire Downs. NearWantage, the route along the ridge of the Downs is known asThe Ridgeway, and the nameIcknield Way is applied to a parallel lowland route above thespring line at the northern edge of the chalk.[8] BetweenLewknor andIvinghoe there are two parallel courses known as theLower Icknield Way and theUpper Icknield Way.[9] InCambridgeshire,Street Way (Ashwell Street),Ditch Way and others have been put forward as variant routes, possibly for use in summer or winter.[1][10]
Many modern roads follow the Icknield Way, such as the B489 fromAston Clinton to Dunstable and theA505 fromBaldock toRoyston. In some places, especially from the east ofLuton in Bedfordshire toIckleford (so named from the Way crossing a stream) nearHitchin in Hertfordshire, the route is followed by minor roads, and is not distinguishable at all in many places, except by landscape features such asbarrows 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 timeRoyston was cut in two by this boundary. Royston is where the Icknield Way crossesErmine Street.
In the south-west some writers take the Way toExeter, while others only take it as far as Salisbury. To the north-east,Icklingham, Suffolk, andCaistor-by-Norwich,Yarmouth andHunstanton, Norfolk, have all been proposed as the destination.[1] In support of the western route, a road atDersingham near Hunstanton was namedYkenildestrethe andIkelynge Street in the 13th century.[11]
Modernlong-distance footpaths have been created fromLyme Regis on theDorset coast toHolme-next-the-Sea on theNorfolk coast, following the general line of the Icknield Way.
TheHobhouse Committee report of 1947 suggested the creation of a path betweenSeaton Bay and the Chiltern ridge, and in 1956Tom Stephenson proposed a longer route toCambridge. A route through Norfolk was discussed in the 1960s.[12][13]
The first section to be officially designated as a Long-Distance Footpath (asNational Trails were then known) was that fromOverton Hill toIvinghoe Beacon, and it was declared open as theRidgeway in 1973. ThePeddars Way, fromKnettishall Heath to Holme-next-the-Sea, forms part of thePeddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path National Trail, which was opened as a Long Distance Route in 1986. Between the Ridgeway and Peddars Way, parts of the original line of the Icknield Way had been covered in tarmac or built over, so a route was devised that avoids walking on roads. In 1992, this was designated by theCountryside Commission as a Regional Route called theIcknield Way Path. TheWessex Ridgeway from Lyme Regis toMarlborough was declared open by Dorset County Council in 1994.[12][13]
Charles Thurstan Shaw, archaeologist and long-distance walker, founded the Icknield Way Association which campaigned to reopen the entire Icknield Way as a long-distance path in 1984, the same year he produced the first walker's guide to the route.[14][15]
The combination of the Wessex Ridgeway, Ridgeway, Icknield Way and Peddars Way, together with the Cranborne Droves Way and Sarsen Way, is promoted as a family of routes called theGreat Chalk Way.[16] The author Ray Quinlan calls a similar route theGreater Ridgeway, with a length of approximately 584 kilometres (363 mi) from Lyme Regis to Hunstanton.[17]
Parts of the Ridgeway National Trail and theIcknield Way Path are only usable as a footpath, so theIcknield Way Path Riders Route orIcknield Way Trail have been created for horseriders and cyclists. The route runs fromBledlow toRoudham Heath, where it joins thePeddars Way Riders Route.[18][19]
The Icknield Way has inspired a number of writers and artists.Spencer Gore, the founder of theCamden Town Group of artists, painted the route in 1912 while staying with his friendHarold Gilman at Letchworth. His work, influenced byCézanne,Van Gogh andGauguin, is acknowledged as one of the pioneering works of BritishModernism.[20][21] One of the best known literary travellers of the Icknield Way is the poetEdward Thomas, who walked the path in 1911 and published his account in 1913. Thomas was interested in ancient roads and inspired byHilaire Belloc'sOld Road and other travel memoirs published byConstable written by R. Hippisley Cox, Harold J. E. Peake and others. Although the book takes the form of a single 10-day journey, Thomas wrote the book in stages over the course of a year. He was often joined by his brother Julian, both rising at 5 am or 6 am to walk 30–40 mi (48–64 km) a day. Although more interested in poetic description, his publisher directed him to give more concrete details of his route, thus the book is closer to being a guidebook than Thomas' earlier, more poetic, travel books.[22] Inspired by Thomas's journey, contemporary British nature writerRobert MacFarlane begins his book of walking ancient paths,The Old Ways, by walking the Icknield Way, "hoping to summon him [Thomas] by walking where he had walked".[23]George R. R. Martin used the "Four Highways" as the model for the Kingsway in hisA Song of Ice and Fire novels.[24] The first episode of the 2016–17 documentary seriesBritain's Ancient Tracks with Tony Robinson was about the Icknield Way and included drone views of the trail.
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