Sunken road

A sunken lane (also hollow way or holloway) is a road 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.

Various mechanisms have been proposed for how holloways may have been formed, 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. All of these mechanisms could apply in different cases.

Means of formation

A variety of theories have been proposed for the origins of holloways. Different mechanisms may well apply in different cases.

Erosion

Some sunken lanes are created incrementally by erosion, by water and traffic. Some are very ancient with evidence of Roman or Iron Age origins, but others such as the Deep Hill Ruts in the old Oregon Trail at Guernsey, Wyoming developed in the space of a decade or two.

Where ancient 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 disused ridgeways in central Germany, the hollow ways often mark inclines.Nicke, Herbert: ''Vergessene Wege'', Nümbrecht: Martina Galunder Verlag, 2001

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 are single track roads. Occasional passing 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.

Embankments for cattle

Up to the present day, some writers have assumed that low banks were deliberately created with shovels as a means to hem in cattle, but there is no evidence for this, and in any case, banking only appears intermittently in certain types of soil. When metalled, sunken lanes are unlikely to erode any further down.

Double boundary banks

In ''The 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 at Abbotsham, Devon and Richard Coffin's land at Alwington and Cockington. He gives another example, also from Devon, in a photograph of Armourwood Lane, Thorverton, which bounded the royal Silverton estate and the estate of Exeter abbey, most likely in the seventh century. Hoskins states that some such lanes are Celtic, some Saxon, some mediaeval.

In different countries

Belgium

A sunken lane extending across the battlefield played an important role in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, particularly in presenting an obstacle to the French cavalry. Victor Hugo dramatized this episode in ''Les Misérables''.

France

Sunken lanes are common in the West of France, in the ''bocage'' landscape, especially around Lower Normandy, Brittany and Anjou. The ''bocage'' landscape is historically famous for having been a particular feature of some conflicts, including the Chouannerie, or more recently the Battle 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 of Saint-Lô

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