One of the most interesting features of Leicestershire topography is the series of minor mounds along the highway from Melton Mowbray to the great mound of Leicester Castle, and the scores of well known mounds, with or without moat, to be met with in fields, apparently remote from everywhere, yet obviously having a significance.
A flood of light has been turned upon this subject in a book recently published, upon the mounds or tumps of Herefordshire:—“Early British Trackways,” by Mr. Watkins; and an application of his theories and methods to Leicestershire, will be found to yield a key to many of our own local problems. The value of the theory and method is that it can be applied by any amateur who possesses a one-inch Ordnance Map, and a little topographical knowledge.
The important roads radiating from the city of Leicester proclaim the Castle mound as a most important road-centre. Now, according to Mr. Watkins, the earliest track markers took an elevated point of importance (important either for defence or trade) up to 40 or 50 miles away from such centre, and marked the intervening space with mounds a few miles apart—either on elevated spots, or in the plain—in a perfect straight line. Such a road line, he claims, was called a “ley”; and in this meaning rather than that of “meadow,” the syllable enters into the composition of place names. “Ley” also occurs again and again in field names, when there is no question of meadow at all.
To test the theory, the present writer took the line of an evidently ancient track from Burrough Camp to Ratcliffe-on-Wreake, and the straight edge struck the site of a mound just north of Gaddesby. This, in turn, is on the straight line from Melton to Leicester. As the spot is not visible from Melton, nor Leicester, there should be, according to theory, similar mounds, on each side, say one to the east of Barkby and one in the neighbourhood of Cream Gorse, etc.
The mound between Beeby and Scraptoft lies on the “ley” between Burrough Camp and Leicester, while other important “leys” pass through it. Another mound near Ingarsby is cut by the lines Leicester to Billesdon Coplow, and Burrough Camp to Brux (?) Hill, Oadby.
These strikingly suggestive points can be multiplied indefinitely, especially by reference to such elevations as Croft Hill, Bardon Hill, Breedon Hill and the Forest range, the examples being limited only by local knowledge and research.
As to the uses made of these direct roads the primary one seems to have been military. All over the land the Roman military authorities seem to have adapted the tracks of the old British surveyors to the empire’s needs. A secondary use was a commercial one, indicated here and there by the names still existing. For example, salt was the most important commodity perhaps of those early times, and in Leicestershire we have Salt-by and Salters-ford.
These remarks mainly concern East Leicestershire, still more fruitful areas are to be found in the North and West, so that only the fringe of the subject is touched.
Anyone who has followed these remarks will see at once how extremely fascinating a few careful investigations with no more than the map and a straight edge may prove.
Source info: Cuttings agency.