Further review of EBT

TRACKWAYS & THEIR ORIGIN

“Early British Trackways.” By Alfred Watkins. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd. 4/6 net.

In September last the author gave a lecture to the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club at Hereford on Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps, and Sites, a subject of which he admits that he knew nothing, and had no theories on the previous 30th of June. Three months seems all too short a time in which to have mastered a difficult and controversial matter, but the author has no doubts either as to the importance or the accuracy of his conclusions.

His contentions are that from the Neolithic to the post-Roman period “all trackways were in straight lines, marked out by experts on a sighting system,” and that the sighting lines were from mountain to mountain, or hill to hill, such points being terminals. Secondary sighting points were made on the lower ground, and these were constructed either of earth, water, or stone, trees being also planted on the line. Sacred wells were sometimes terminals, and sometimes included as secondary points. Earth sighting points were chiefly on higher ground, and now bear the names of tump, tumulus, mound, castle, barrow, moat, and camp, or words with similar meanings. Another form of earth sighting point was in the form of a notch or cutting in a bank or mountain ridge which had to be crossed by the sighting line. Water sighting points seem to have been evolved from the excavations made for the tumps or moats, forming a ring of reflection from the higher ground, and are now known as moats and ponds. Stone sighting lines were natural blocks, and sighting points were used for commerce and for assemblies of the people. When troublesome times came, groups of two or three sighting tumps, which came near together, often had defensive earthworks added to make a fortified enclosed camp. All forms of sighting points became objects of interest, superstition and genuine veneration, and as such were utilised on the introduction of Christianity. Practically all ancient churches are on the site of these sighting points, usually at a cross of tracks, and in some cases the churchyard cross is on the exact spot of the ancient sighting or marking stone. In time, homesteads clustered round the sighting points, especially the ponds. The moats and tumps were often adopted in after ages as sites for the defensive homes or castles of wealthy owners.

These are the author’s contentions, admittedly based on a limited study of early trackways around Hereford. But it is obvious that quite different conclusions may be drawn from the position of mounds, moats, camps, stones, and trees in relation to a trackway. We do not know on what evidence the author bases his opinion that the earthen mounds preceded the construction of the trackways. In most instances it is a question quite incapable of proof, but it is at least as likely that the trackway was originally a fairly straight line from one natural point to another, and because of its use as a highway moats were dug, castles, camps, barrows constructed, and boundary stones erected along its course. By the author’s method of reasoning it could equally well be shown that in the 18th century gibbet posts were erected as sighting points for the roads by which they are always found, or that lines of dwelling-houses are erected in the suburbs of large towns to ensure that the subsequent road should follow a straight line. A further three months’ examination of the tracks so carefully explored by the author, on the hypothesis that the track was the primary consideration, and that all the other things were added into it, might cause a reversal of his opinion. The parapraph which he entitles “Proof,” would be found in every way applicable to this point of view.

Antiquaries have by no means ignored the subject so completely as Mr. Watkins assumes; in most parts of the country a considerable amount of work has been done in describing early trackways, and the published accounts are quite voluminous. The fact that many moats surround areas in which there are no traces of masonry puzzle him, but if he will visualise the wooden aula of a Saxon or Danish settler, surrounded by its defensive ditch, and not succeeded by a residence in Norman or later times, the meaning of these moats will become clearer, and it will not be necessary to assume that they were dug so that from the higher ground the light night be reflected on the water. In Norfolk and Suffolk we have several early trackways in a more or less primitive state, and it can be asserted without hesitation that Mr. Watkins’ arguments are not applicable. In one or two instances he might find a tump, such as Pepper Hill provides from the Drove on the top of Bromehill or Hut Hill, at Knettishall, from the Blackwater ford of the Little Ouse on Peddar’s Way, but these are Bronze Age barrows, and follow a custom prevalent in Denmark, as well as this country, of being placed in prominent positions near early trackways. Another contention by Mr. Watkins is that natural stones were sighting-points along these early ways. Here again another explanation is more probable. For most of its course Peddar’s Way is still a parish boundary, and in early times parish boundaries were marked not only by the earthen banks that still remain in many instances, but also by crosses of wood and stone, by natural boulders moved to the boundary, and by planted trees. That churches were often erected near cross-roads and by highways is as understandable as the fact that gibbets were also, but we should like the author to apply his theories to such undoubted early trackways as the Icknield Way and Peddar’s Way. The builders of churches seem always to have avoided their vicinity for reasons easily apparent, as settlements follow the streams and the valleys, and most early trackways kept to the dry ridges so as to avoid the forest and scrub of the low-lying swamps. Only in places where churches are on the high ground, usually away from the villages, is it, we believe, possible to establish a connection with early trackways.

Mr. Watkins’ philology is amusing. He says that the sighting line was called the ley or lay; that if a man did not keep straight on he would be de-leyed; that a ley in a wood became a glade; that “where the ley had lain for a long time often became a lane”; and that when ground was “laned out” it became land. He does not state what it was before. Nevertheless, despite the defects of his argument, Mr. Watkins has done a useful piece of work. He has drawn attention to almost every point necessary to be borne in mind when exploring the early trackways, and his numerous photographs are delightful.