Asunken lane (alsohollow way orholloway) is aroad or track that is significantly lower than the land on either side, not formed by the (recent) engineering of a road cutting but possibly of much greater age.
Holloways may have been formed in various ways, including erosion by water or traffic; the digging of embankments to assist with the herding of livestock; and the digging of double banks to mark the boundaries of estates.
A variety of theories have been proposed for the origins of holloways. Different mechanisms may well apply in different cases.
Some sunken lanes are created incrementally by erosion, bywater and traffic. Some are ancient, with evidence ofRoman orIron Age origins, but others such as theDeep Hill Ruts in the oldOregon Trail atGuernsey, Wyoming, developed in the space of a decade or two.[1]
Whereancient trackways have lapsed from use, the overgrown and shallow marks of hollow ways through forest may be the sole evidence of their former existence. On disusedridgeways in central Germany, the hollow ways often mark inclines.[2]
The earth banks on either side, sometimes topped with hedges and trees, can give the impression of a tunnel enclosing the traveller. Because the roadway is restricted by the banks on either side, sunken lanes typically admit the passage of only one vehicle; that is, they aresingle track roads. Occasionalpassing places may be provided, but a meeting of vehicles in a sunken lane often requires one party to reverse to a suitable passing place. In Central Germany, "dual carriageways" have been observed with two trenches side by side where a trackway was in such heavy use that it had lanes dedicated for each direction.[2]
Up to the present day, some writers have assumed that low banks were deliberately created with shovels as a means to hem in cattle,[3] but there is no evidence for this, and in any case, banking only appears intermittently in certain types of soil[citation needed]. Whenmetalled, sunken lanes are unlikely to erode further.
InThe Making of the English Landscape,W. G. Hoskins explains the origin of some English holloways as a pair of matched earth banks marking the boundaries of two landowners' estates, as evidenced by the "two-fold ditch",twifealda dich in a charter of c. 1174 describing the boundary between the abbot of Tavistock's land atAbbotsham,Devon and Richard Coffin's land atAlwington andCockington. He gives another example, also from Devon, in a photograph of Armourwood Lane,Thorverton, which bounded the royalSilverton estate and the estate ofExeter abbey, most likely in the seventh century. Hoskins states that some such lanes areCeltic, someSaxon, somemedieval.[4]
A sunken lane extending across the battlefield played an important role in theBattle of Waterloo in 1815, particularly in presenting an obstacle to the French cavalry.[5]Victor Hugo dramatized this episode inLes Misérables.[6]
Sunken lanes are common in the West of France, in thebocage landscape, especially aroundLower Normandy,Brittany andAnjou. Thebocage landscape is historically famous for having been a particular feature of some conflicts, including theChouannerie,[7] or more recently theBattle of Normandy. The German army used sunken lanes to implement strong points and defenses to stop the American troops on the Cotentin peninsula and around the town ofSaint-Lô.[8]
One such lane, theSunken Lane atHawthorn Ridge west ofBeaumont Hamel in northernFrance, is remembered as an assembly point for British troops, many of whom were filmed there on thefirst day on the Somme (1 July 1916) byGeoffrey Malins for the filmThe Battle of the Somme.
One of the largest networks of such routes in Germany is to be found in the municipalities ofAlsheim andMettenheim inRhineland-Palatinate, where there they make up over 30 km ofhiking trails. Some of these sunken lanes can be up to 5 metres deep.[9]
InGalicia and westernAsturias (both regions of northernSpain) the sunken lanes are usually calledcongostras orcorredoiras, from Latincoangusta 'confined' andcurro, currere 'run', being a common and characteristic feature of rural areas. Some lanes are now being recovered as hiking trails.[citation needed]
InSyria, faint traces of hollow ways attest to a dense network of tracks or paths connectingBronze Age sites with each other and with their cultivation zones in the fourth and third millennia BC, and thousands of kilometres of such routes have been surveyed.[10]
Sunken lanes are a characteristic feature of the landscape ofsouthern England, especially in thechalk areas of theNorth andSouth Downs, andgreensand areas such asthe Weald. TheSurrey Hills AONB has many sunken lanes. Seal Hollow Road inSevenoaks is a fine example of a sunken lane in southern England.[citation needed]
They are a particular feature of the West Country, in counties such asDorset,[11] and west Wales – areas unaffected by the land enclosures of mediaeval England.[12] The English surname Holloway (hollow-way) derives from the Old English "hola weg", a sunken road.[11]
While many sunken lanes are nowmetalled, some are still unsurfacedgreen lanes, typically now designated as eitherbridleways orbyways.
A sunken road is across country equestrian obstacle.
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