Ridgeways are a particular type of ancient
road
A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation.
There are many types of ...
that exploits the hard surface of hilltop
ridges for use as unpaved, zero-maintenance roads, though they often have the disadvantage of steeper gradients along their courses, and sometimes quite narrow widths. Before the advent of turnpikes or
toll road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically ...
s, ridgeway trails continued to provide the firmest and safest cart tracks. They are generally an opposite to level, valley-bottom,
paved
Pavement may refer to:
* Pavement (architecture), an outdoor floor or superficial surface covering
* Road surface, the durable surfacing of roads and walkways
** Asphalt concrete, a common form of road surface
* Sidewalk or pavement, a walkway ...
roads, which require engineering work to shore up and maintain. Unmaintained valley routes may require greater travelling distances than ridgeways.
Prehistoric roads in Europe often variously comprised stretches of ridgeway above the line of springs, sections of
causeway through bog and marsh, and other trackways of neither sort which crossed flat country.
A revival of interest in ancient roads and recreational walking in the 19th century brought the concept back into common use. Some ancient routes, in particular
The Ridgeway
The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside
The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ...
National Trail
National Trails are long distance footpaths and bridleways in England and Wales. They are administered by Natural England, a statutory agency of the UK government, and Natural Resources Wales (successor body to the Countryside Council for Wal ...
of southern England, have been reprised as
long-distance footpaths.
Origin
![Ridgeway](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Ridgeway.jpg)
Along ridge lines of hills, soil is often exposed and dry because of wind and natural drainage, and vegetation tends to be thinner. Where a beaten track evolves into a busier "road", constant passage by animals, sleds and wheeled vehicles suppresses regrowth of vegetation. With the help of rain (and
soil creep), a shallow trail can be worn down into the topsoil and smoothed without any purposeful road-making work. The thin soil and rocky subsoil, combined with the natural drainage provided by the slopes on each side, also tended to keep such roads dry.
In western Europe, where prehistoric roads have been extensively documented with the help of itineraries, traces on old maps and extant marks on the landscape, ridgeways are a typical feature of long-distance ancient routes through rugged, high-rainfall parts of Germany and across the island of Great Britain. These
ancient trackways generally ran along the hilltops, only descending when necessary to cross valleys.
As such, they are an opposite to modern-style roads, which tend to run along the valleys and only ascend when necessary to cross the hilltops.
Courses
![RidgewayRingfort](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/RidgewayRingfort.jpg)
In rugged parts of central Germany, ridgeways tend to strictly follow the watershed line proper, since traversing steep slopes was difficult for wheeled vehicles and uncomfortable for foot travellers unless someone had cut a track into the hillside and shored it up against washouts and slips. However, deviations around high peaks were common, usually taking the south side of the peak, presumably because the warmer side was usually drier. On flatter British hills, the line of the tracks often runs a little below the actual crest of the ridge, possibly to afford some shelter from the wind or to avoid travellers presenting themselves to marauders as a target on the skyline.
The discomfort of following ridgeways arises from their exposure to harsh weather and the fact that they are rarely level. The ridge line rises and falls. Moreover, at some point the ridge ends, so that the route must descend to ford a stream before rising again to follow the next ridge. Loads on two-wheeled carts had to be constantly shifted to the back during descents and to the front during ascents so that the animals could draw efficiently.
In medieval and later times, ridgeways in England were used as
drovers 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; o ...
s.
Since ridgeways were informal routes, and the rounded tops of many British and German ridges might be hundreds of metres wide, the track might change seasonally, or spontaneously, if any land alongside the trail appeared drier and firmer. But where the tracks were seen as marking boundaries, the course could no longer change without causing a property dispute. English ridgeway routes became fixed in the course of
enclosure
Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
s beginning about 1750.
Notable prehistoric ridgeways include:
;in England
*
The Ridgeway
The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside
The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ...
between
Avebury
Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in ...
and
Streatley in southern England
*The
Icknield Way
The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern and eastern England that runs from Norfolk to Wiltshire. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills.
Background
It is generally said to be, wi ...
on the escarpment of the
Chiltern Hills and extending towards Norfolk in southern England
*The Old Shaftesbury Drove and the Ox Drove leading from
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...
and
Blandford
Blandford Forum ( ), commonly Blandford, is a market town in Dorset, England, sited by the River Stour about northwest of Poole. It was the administrative headquarters of North Dorset District until April 2019, when this was abolished and ...
to
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of ...
;in Germany
*The
Rennweg (Arnsberger Wald), an old trade route along the
Arnsberg Forest
The Arnsberg Forest Nature Park (german: Naturpark Arnsberger Wald) is a nature park in the districts of Hochsauerlandkreis and Soest within the administrictive region of Arnsberg in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The park was est ...
*The
Brüderstrasse between Cologne and Siegen, Germany
*The
Rennsteig from Gerstungen through the Thuringian mountains of Germany, restored from 1896 onwards as a 169-kilometre trail
Evaluation
Some modern authors have suggested several advantages a ridgeway might possess:
* A ridgeway trail preserves itself without paving and constant maintenance, which were not available in medieval or early modern times in Europe.
* A watershed route can cover long distances without crossing water: valley roads require fords or bridges over tributary streams.
* In some landscapes, a line along a hill is more direct, whereas valley routes tend to
meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ba ...
.
* Routes well away from arable land in valleys can avoid tolls and customs charges imposed by land-owners or potentates.
* Despite laws on rights of way, lowland farmers encroach on paths which they themselves do not use. Travellers can bypass villages on higher ground, which has little agricultural value.
* Treeless hilltops may be safer from attack by robbers or fierce animals than densely forested valleys.
Demise
Some ridgeway routes were adopted and paved by the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
, even though the prevailing Roman road-construction practice was to build straight roads from point to point, rising and falling with the landscape.
Some German ridgeways were deliberately closed to force traffic into towns. In one instance, the central purpose of the Rheingauer Gebück, a 38-kilometre fence erected in the 12th century, may have been to close down a German ridgeway and force traffic onto the Rhine river. Many ridgeways have continued in use with
macadam or
paved
Pavement may refer to:
* Pavement (architecture), an outdoor floor or superficial surface covering
* Road surface, the durable surfacing of roads and walkways
** Asphalt concrete, a common form of road surface
* Sidewalk or pavement, a walkway ...
surfaces in modern times. Others fell into disuse when more level paved routes, either along valley bottoms or cut transversely along hillsides, were built parallel to them.
Noting the existence of such parallel routes, antiquarians in Britain came to associate ridgeways culturally with ancient
Britons
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...
. However the evidence for the great antiquity of ridgeway routes is ambiguous. In the modern era, new cart tracks have generally avoided inhospitable high ground: the 1840s and 1850s
Wagon Trails from the
Missouri River to
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
and
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
rutted trails in bare earthgenerally followed low courses.
Rediscovery
In Britain, the term ''ridgeway'' has been in continuous use since Anglo-Saxon times as a generic term to distinguish any high travel route from a lower one. The earliest extant written form is spelled ''hrycweg'', dating from 938. In German, a variety of terms of similar date match the concept of a ridgeway: ''Rennweg'' (since circa 860: ''Rennewec''), ''Rennstieg'' (1162: ''Rinnestich''), ''Bergstrasse'' (C9: ''Birgistrotun'') and ''hohe Strasse'' (circa 1000 ''Howestraze'').
A revival of interest in ancient roads in the 19th century brought the concept back into common use. Although the Great
Ridgeway northwest of London was the best known of such routes, 19th-century British antiquarians rediscovered numerous other local ridgeways and speculated that names such as
Ryknild Street
Icknield Street or Ryknild Street is a Roman road in England, with a route roughly south-west to north-east. It runs from the Fosse Way at Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire () to Templeborough in South Yorkshire (). It passes through A ...
(a valley route) contained the word ridge in modified form. Scholars such as Georg Landau (1807–1865) began mapping and walking ancient ridgeway roads across Germany in the 19th century.
Recording prehistoric ridgeways today can be difficult. Trails only lightly worn into soil along ridge lines are generally no longer visible, but their courses are sometimes marked by modern roads and footpaths that have perpetuated the ridgeway routes.
A ridgeway previously used by carts often remains physically evident in the form of a
hollow way
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 pro ...
: a trench or fosse eroded deep into the soil by constant passage of wheels and hooves. These are most common at inclines. Sleds, axles scraping the soil between wheel ruts, locked wheels skidding downhill and heavy weights dragged over the ground to brake the carts' descents would all continue eroding the surface down to the bedrock, if any, which then forms a natural pavement.
When it rains, the mud and
debris
Debris (, ) is rubble, wreckage, ruins, litter and discarded garbage/refuse/trash, scattered remains of something destroyed, or, as in geology, large rock fragments left by a melting glacier, etc. Depending on context, ''debris'' can refer to ...
in an inclined hollow way tend to be washed down the channel, slowly flushing it out and leaving banks on either side where hedgerows may develop and collect more material. Hollow ways can of course occur in any firm-ground trackway, not just in ridgeway sections. On level sections of a ridgeway, banks are less common, perhaps because travellers avoided large puddles and constantly changed the courses, or because any banks eroded.
Recreational
![ASC 7 db](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/ASC_7_db.jpg)
From the 19th century onwards, old ridgeways which had not been converted into highways were often revived by hiking clubs or tourism authorities, marked out as scenic trails for walking, horse-riding or mountain biking far from the disturbances of motor traffic. An 1890
Baedeker
Verlag Karl Baedeker, founded by Karl Baedeker on July 1, 1827, is a German publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred to simply as " Baedekers" (a term sometimes used to refer to similar works fro ...
guide recommended walks on The Ridgeway, and efforts to give that ridgeway legislative recognition began in 1947.
Some completely new recreational ridgeways have been devised where there was no tradition of the route being used for trade in previous centuries. Examples include the ''
Kammweg'' established in 1904 in eastern Germany and the 197-kilometre
Wessex Ridgeway in England, devised in the 1980s by the
Ramblers Association
The Ramblers is the trading name of the Ramblers Association, Great Britain's leading walking charity. The Ramblers is also a membership organisation with around 100,000 members and a network of volunteers who maintain and protect the path ...
, following ridges between the Atlantic coast and
Avebury
Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in ...
, with a preference for firm paths, good scenery and free access.
[Quinlan.]
See also
*
Ancient trackway
Historic roads (historic trails in USA and Canada) are paths or routes that have historical importance due to their use over a period of time. Examples exist from prehistoric times until the early 20th century. They include ancient trackways ...
*
Causeway
*
Ford (crossing)
A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading, or inside a vehicle getting its wheels wet. A ford may occur naturally or be constructed. Fords may be impassable during high water. A low-water c ...
*
Hollow way
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 pro ...
*
Drainage divide
*
Ridge
*
List of ancient roads
*
Trade route
A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over bodies of water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a sing ...
*
Salt road
A salt road (also known as a salt route, salt way, saltway, or salt trading route) refers to any of the prehistoric and historical trade routes by which essential salt was transported to regions that lacked it.
From the Bronze Age (in the 2nd m ...
Notes
References
*Briggs, Keith
Maps of Roman Roads in England Retrieved on 2008-11-07.
*Hodgson, John. "Observations on the Roman Road called Wrekendike", in ''Archaeologia Aeliana'',
Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne
The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, the oldest provincial antiquarian society in England, was founded in 1813. It is a registered charity under English law.
It has had a long-standing interest in the archaeology of the north-east ...
, 1832.
*Jermy, Kenneth E
The 'North Cheshire Ridge' Roman Road Britannia 21, 283–285 (1990).
*Landau, Georg. ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der alten Heer- und Handelsstraßen in Deutschland'', Kassel, Bärenreiter, 1958.
*Mechelhoff, Frank
2005–2007. Retrieved on 2008-11-07.
*Nicke, Herbert. ''Vergessene Wege'', Nümbrecht, Martina Galunder Verlag, 2001, .
*Phelps, William. ''The History and Antiquities of Somersetshire'', J.B. Nichols and Son, 1836.
*Quinlan, Ray. ''The Greater Ridgeway'', Cicerone Press, 2003, .
*Weimann, Reinhold. ''Gewässer und Landschaft zwischen Sieg und Agger'', Bonn, Naturhistorischer Verein der Rheinlande und Westfalens, 1971.
*West, Graham. ''The Technical Development of Roads in Britain'', Ashgate, 2000, , .
{{refend
External links
Hiking trails
Roads by type
Ancient roads and tracks