The Bluestone Heath Road is an ancient route and ridgeway across the

Lincolnshire Wolds The Lincolnshire Wolds are a range of low hills in the county of Lincolnshire, England which run roughly parallel with the North Sea coast, from the Humber Estuary in the north-west to the edge of the Lincolnshire Fens in the south-east. They a ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The surviving parts are somewhat fragmented in places, but many still bear the name.

Route

The route begins at Candlesby and runs northbound to

Caistor Caistor is a town and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. As its name implies, it was originally a Roman castrum or fortress. It lies at the north-west edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, on the Viking Way, and jus ...

, following closely an ancient

ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

across the spine of the wold. It climbs to a height of 98 metres (320 feet) above sea level near

Tetford Tetford is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. History Tetford is listed as "Tesforde" in the ''Domesday Book'', with a mill, probably on the site of the present 17th-century watermill near the c ...

, and, on a fine day, provides a view of the hamlets, fields, hills and landmarks of the area, such as

Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. Constructio ...

Boston Stump St Botolph's Church is the Anglican parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England a ...

and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. The route is marked on the ''Landranger No 122'' (

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

Area)

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

map.

History

The route is thought to have been developed by the earliest

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

settlers of the region and used as a

drove road A drovers' road, drove ''roador droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were ancient routes of unknown age; oth ...

for moving livestock. The primary evidence for this is the route's width compared to nearby routes and its relative distance from existing settlements of the time. The route continued to be used by the

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a ...

, sometimes closely following the original Celtic route and sometimes deviating from it. Between Ulceby and approximately

Skendleby Skendleby is a small village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated near to the A158 and lies east from the county town Lincoln, and about north-east from the town of Spilsby. The village stand ...

the road was straightened by the Romans and formed part of the

Roman Road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

between

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

(

Lindum Colonia Lindum Colonia was the Latin name for the settlement which is now the City of Lincoln in Lincolnshire. It was founded as a Roman Legionary Fortress during the reign of the Emperor Nero (58–68 AD) or possibly later. Evidence from Roman tomb ...

) and the ancient coast around Wainfleet,

Burgh le Marsh Burgh le Marsh is a town, and electoral ward in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.OS Explorer map: Skegness, Alford & Spilsby: (1:25 000): Geography The town is built on a low hill surrounded by former marsh land, and the mar ...

and

. This Roman Road deviates from the Bluestone Heath Road around Ulceby but runs parallel to it about a mile to the south until it reaches the

/ Belchford area. There is a disputed claim that the road was used as a munitions store during World War II due to its proximity to a number of air fields, together with a local legend that a German Doodlebug or

V-2 The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...

rocket landed on Tetford Hill but never detonated.

References

External links

Photographs along the Bluestone Heath Road
{{Coord, 53.2694, 0.0149, region:GB, display=title Roads in England