Ridgeway (road)
Ridgeways are a particular type of ancient
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
Origin
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
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
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.[2]
Courses
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.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5]
In medieval and later times, ridgeways in England were used as
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 enclosures beginning about 1750.[6]
Notable prehistoric ridgeways include:
- in England
- The Ridgeway between Avebury and Streatley in southern England
- The Icknield Way 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 and Blandford to Salisbury[7]
- in Germany
- The Arnsberg Forest
- 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.[8]
- A watershed route can cover long distances without crossing water: valley roads require fords or bridges over tributary streams.[9]
- In some landscapes, a line along a hill is more direct, whereas valley routes tend to meander.[10]
- Routes well away from arable land in valleys can avoid tolls and customs charges imposed by land-owners or potentates.[11]
- Despite laws on rights of way, lowland farmers encroach on paths which they themselves do not use.[12] Travellers can bypass villages on higher ground,[13] which has little agricultural value.
- Treeless hilltops may be safer from attack by robbers or fierce animals than densely forested valleys.[14]
Demise
Some ridgeway routes were adopted and paved by the Romans,[15] even though the prevailing Roman road-construction practice was to build straight roads from point to point, rising and falling with the landscape.[16]
Some German ridgeways were deliberately closed to force traffic into towns.
Noting the existence of such parallel routes, antiquarians in Britain came to associate ridgeways culturally with ancient
– rutted trails in bare earth – generally 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.[20] In German, a variety of terms of similar date match the concept of a ridgeway: Rennweg (since circa 860: Rennewec[21]), Rennstieg (1162: Rinnestich[22]), Bergstrasse (C9: Birgistrotun[23]) and hohe Strasse (circa 1000 Howestraze[24]).
A revival of interest in ancient roads in the 19th century brought the concept back into common use. Although the Great
Recording prehistoric ridgeways today[when?] 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
When it rains, the mud and debris 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,[29] perhaps because travellers avoided large puddles and constantly changed the courses, or because any banks eroded.
Recreational
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 guide recommended walks on The Ridgeway,[30] and efforts to give that ridgeway legislative recognition began in 1947.[31]
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
See also
- Ancient trackway
- Causeway
- Ford (crossing)
- Hollow way
- Drainage divide
- Ridge
- List of ancient roads
- Trade route
- Salt road
Notes
- ^ Landau
- ^ Weimann, Reinhold.
- ^ Nicke.
- ^ West.
- ^ Nicke.
- ^ The Ridgeway website. Retrieved on 2008-11-07
- ^ "Victoria County History of Wiltshire Volume 11". Bishopstone. pp. 3–19.
- ^ Nicke.
- ^ Nicke, 7.
- ^ Nicke.
- ^ Mechelhoff
- ^ Mechelhoff.
- ^ Quinlan.
- ^ Quinlan.
- ^ Jermy
- ^ Briggs
- ^ Landau.
- ^ Mechelhoff.
- ^ Phelps.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary.
- ^ Landau.
- ^ Landau.
- ^ Landau.
- ^ Landau.
- ^ Phelps.
- ^ Hodgson.
- ^ Landau, introduction by Willi Görich.
- ^ Nicke, 14.
- ^ Nicke, 14.
- ^ Great Britain: Handbook for Travellers, Leipzig, Karl Baedeker, 1890.
- ^ Quinlan.
- ^ Quinlan.
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, 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. Taunusreiter website, 2005–2007. Retrieved on 2008-11-07.
- Nicke, Herbert. Vergessene Wege, Nümbrecht, Martina Galunder Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-931251-80-2.
- Phelps, William. The History and Antiquities of Somersetshire, J.B. Nichols and Son, 1836.
- Quinlan, Ray. The Greater Ridgeway, Cicerone Press, 2003, ISBN 978-1-85284-346-5.
- Weimann, Reinhold. Gewässer und Landschaft zwischen Sieg und Agger, Bonn, Naturhistorischer Verein der Rheinlande und Westfalens, 1971. (in German)
- West, Graham. The Technical Development of Roads in Britain, Ashgate, 2000, ISBN 978-0-7546-1406-7.