England -- Antiquities; England -- Description and travel; Roads -- Great Britain
When one considers the condition of the terrain immediately to the
east, the loss is not to be marvelled at. The hillside of Upwood
Scrubbs falls very steeply into the valley by which the modern
high-road climbs up to Caterham. It is an incline down which not even
a primitive road would have attempted to go, and when one gets to the
valley below the whole place is so cut up with the modern road, the
old Roman road a little way to the east, and the remnants of a quarry
just beyond, that it would have been impossible in this half-mile for
the trace of the Pilgrim's Way to be properly preserved. I will,
however, make this suggestion: that it descended the hillside
diagonally going due NE. from the summit to the old gravel pit at the
bottom, that then it curved round under the steep bank which supports
Woodlands House, that is Dialbank Wood, went north of Quarry Cottage,
and so reached the face of the hill again where the lane is struck
which skirts round the southern edge of Marden Park. This, I say, will
probably be found to be the exact track; but it is quite certain that
the Way cannot have run more than a couple of hundred yards away from
this curve. It cannot have been cut straight across the valley, for
the steepness of the valley-side forbids that, and, on the other hand,
there would have been no object in going much further up the valley
than was necessary in order to save the steep descent.
At any rate, the gap is quite short and the road is easily recovered
after the combe and the high-road are passed; it is thence identical
with the lane I have spoken of above. This lane is called Flower Lane.
It follows the 600-feet contour-line and winds therefore exactly
round the outline of the hill. It passes the lodge of Marden Park, and
within a few hundred yards comes to a place where the modern road
bifurcates. The good macadamised lane goes straight on and somewhat
downwards towards the plain. Another, less carefully made, begins to
wind up the hill above one. From this point onward the Old Road takes
again to the rough ground.
[Illustration]
There lies just before one on the hillside a wood, called 'The Hanging
Wood.'
We skirted the south edge of this wood and found beyond it a field in
which the track is lost;[31] nor was the task of recovering it an easy
one, for the light was just failing, and here, as always where
cultivation has risen above the old level, the Old Road is confused
and destroyed.
We had, however, over these few yards an excellent clue. In a wood
called 'The Rye Wood' just in front of us the track of the Old Road is
not only clearly marked, but has been preserved by local traditions.
For this NW. corner of the Rye Wood we made, through the south of the
spinney called 'Hogtrough Spinney.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account