The Ridgeway
Encyclopedia
Ridgeway (track)
Ridgeways are a particular type of ancient road 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...
or ancient trackway
Ancient trackway
Ancient trackway can refer to any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity. Such paths existed from the earliest prehistoric times and in every inhabited part of the globe...
described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
along the chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
ridge of the Berkshire Downs
Berkshire Downs
The Berkshire Downs are a range of chalk downland hills in southern England, part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
to the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
at the Goring Gap
Goring Gap
The Goring Gap is a British geological feature located on the River Thames approximately 8 miles upstream from Reading.Half a million years ago the River Thames flowed on its existing course through Oxfordshire, but then turned northeast to flow through Hertfordshire before eventually reaching the...
, part of the Icknield Way
Icknield Way
The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern England. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills.-Background:...
which ran, not always on the ridge, from Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in central southern England covering . It is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, with a little in Hampshire. The plain is famous for its rich archaeology, including Stonehenge, one of England's best known...
to East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
. The route was adapted and extended as a National Trail
National Trails
National Trails are long distance footpaths and bridleways in England and Wales. They are administered by Natural England and the Countryside Council for Wales, statutory agencies of the UK government....
, created in 1972. The Ridgeway National Trail follows the ancient Ridgeway from Overton Hill
Overton Hill
Overton Hill is a 571 ft hill at the southern edge of the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire, England. It is situated just west of the village of West Overton and 4.5 miles from the town of Marlborough, on the A4 Road....
, near Avebury
Avebury
Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles which is located around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, south west England. Unique amongst megalithic monuments, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe, and is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain...
, to Streatley
Streatley, Berkshire
Streatley is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England.-Location:Streatley is about from Reading and from Oxford. It is in the Goring Gap on the River Thames and is directly across the river from the Oxfordshire village of Goring-on-Thames...
, then follows footpaths and parts of the ancient Icknield Way through the Chiltern Hills
Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...
to Ivinghoe Beacon
Ivinghoe Beacon
Ivinghoe Beacon is a prominent hill and landmark in the Chiltern Hills, standing 233 m above sea level. It is situated close to the villages of Ivinghoe, Aldbury in Buckinghamshire, the Ashridge Estate, and the village of Little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire, and is managed and owned by the...
in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
. The National Trail is 87 miles (139km) long.
History
For at least 5000 years travellers have used the Ridgeway. Originally connected to the DorsetDorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
coast, the Ridgeway provided a reliable trading route to The Wash
The Wash
The Wash is the square-mouthed bay and estuary on the northwest margin of East Anglia on the east coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire. It is among the largest estuaries in the United Kingdom...
in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. The high dry ground made travel easy and provided a measure of protection by giving traders a commanding view, warning against potential attacks.
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
saw the development of the White Horse
Uffington White Horse
The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long , formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk...
along with the stone circle at Avebury
Avebury
Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles which is located around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, south west England. Unique amongst megalithic monuments, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe, and is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain...
. During the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, inhabitants took advantage of the high ground by building hill forts along the Ridgeway to help defend the trading route. Following the collapse of Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
authority in Western Europe, Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
and Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
invasions of Great Britain saw the Ridgeway used as a road for moving armies. In medieval times and later, the Ridgeway found use by drover
Droving
Droving is the practice of moving livestock over large distances by walking them "on the hoof".Droving stock to market, usually on foot and often with the aid of dogs, has a very long history in the old world...
s, moving their livestock from the West Country
West Country
The West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
to markets in the Home Counties
Home Counties
The home counties is a term which refers to the counties of South East England and the East of England which border London, but do not include the capital city itself...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Prior to the Enclosure Acts of 1750, the Ridgeway existed as an informal series of tracks across the chalk downs, chosen by travellers based on path conditions. Once enclosures started, the current path developed through the building of earth banks and the planting of hedges.
National Trail
The idea for a long-distance path along the line of the Wessex Downs and Chilterns goes back to the Hobhouse CommitteeArthur Hobhouse
Sir Arthur Lawrence Hobhouse was a long-serving English local government Liberal politician, who is best remembered as the architect of the system of National parks of England and Wales....
in 1947. The present route was designated by the Government in 1972, and opened as a National Trail in 1973.
One of fifteen long-distance National Trails in England and Wales, the Ridgeway travels for 87 miles (139km) northeast from Overton Hill within the Avebury World Heritage Site to Ivinghoe Beacon near Tring, where it meets the Icknield Way Path
Icknield Way Path
Icknield Way Path is a long distance footpath in East Anglia, England.It connects with: Angles Way, , Chiltern Way, , Hertfordshire Chain Walk, Hertfordshire Way, Lea Valley Walk, Peddars Way, Ridgeway, Roman Road Link, Stour Valley Path and Swan's Way....
. The Ridgeway meets the more recent (1997) Thames Path
Thames Path
The Thames Path is a National Trail, opened in 1996, following the length of the River Thames from its source near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Thames Barrier at Charlton. It is about long....
National Trail at the Goring Gap, where both trails use opposite banks of the River Thames between Goring-on-Thames and Mongewell; the Thames Path following the western bank and the Ridgeway the eastern.
The Ridgeway represents one of four long distance footpaths which combine to run from Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset, England, situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. The town lies in Lyme Bay, on the English Channel coast at the Dorset-Devon border...
to Hunstanton
Hunstanton
Hunstanton, often pronounced by locals as and known colloquially as 'Sunny Hunny', is a seaside town in Norfolk, England, facing The Wash....
, collectively referred to as the Greater Ridgeway
Greater Ridgeway
The Greater Ridgeway is a 583 kilometre long distance footpath crossing England from Lyme Regis to Hunstanton. It is a combined route which is made from the joining of four other long distance footpaths - the Wessex Ridgeway, The Ridgeway National Trail, the Icknield Way and the Peddars Way...
.
The Ridgeway passes near many Neolithic, Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, and Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
sites including Avebury Circle, a stone circle similar to Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
; Barbury Castle
Barbury Castle
Barbury Castle is an Iron Age hill fort situated in Wiltshire, England. It is one of several such forts found along the ancient Ridgeway route. The site, which lies within the Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, has been managed as a country park by Swindon Borough Council since 1971...
, Liddington Castle
Liddington Castle
Liddington Castle, locally called Liddington Camp, is a late Bronze Age and early Iron Age hill fort in the English county of Wiltshire....
, Uffington Castle
Uffington Castle
Uffington Castle is all that remains of an early Iron Age hill fort in Oxfordshire, England. It covers about 32,000 square metres and is surrounded by two earth banks separated by a ditch with an entrance in the eastern end...
, Segsbury Castle, Pulpit Hill and Ivinghoe Beacon Hill, all Iron Age and Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
hill forts; Wayland's Smithy
Wayland's Smithy
Wayland's Smithy is a Neolithic long barrow and chamber tomb site located near the Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle, at Ashbury in the English county of Oxfordshire ....
, a Neolithic chieftain burial tomb; the Uffington White Horse
Uffington White Horse
The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long , formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk...
, an ancient 400 feet (121.9 m) chalk horse carved into the hillside near Uffington Castle; and Grim's Ditch
Grim's Ditch
Grim's Ditch, Grim's Dyke or Grim's Bank is a name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch earthworks...
, a 5 miles (8 km) section of earthwork near Mongewell
Mongewell
Mongewell is a village in the civil parish of Crowmarsh, about south of Wallingford in Oxfordshire. Mongewell is on the east bank of the Thames, linked with the west bank at Winterbrook by the nearby Winterbrook Bridge...
created by Iron Age peoples as a possible demarcation line. Other points of interest include the Blowing Stone
Blowing Stone
The Blowing Stone is a perforated sarsen stone, located at in a garden at the foot of Blowingstone Hill just south of the Icknield Way , at Kingston Lisle, near Uffington, in the English county of Oxfordshire .-Notability:...
, and Victory Drive, the private drive of Chequers
Chequers
Chequers, or Chequers Court, is a country house near Ellesborough, to the south of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills...
(the British Prime Minister's country retreat).
The Ridgeway's surface varies from chalk-rutted farm paths and green lanes (which have a propensity for becoming extremely muddy and pot-holed after rain) to small sections of metalled roads. Labelled a bridleway (shared with horses and bicycles) for much of its length, the Ridgeway also includes parts designated as byway
Byway (road)
A byway in the United Kingdom is a minor secondary or tertiary road. In 2000 the legal term 'restricted byway' was introduced to cover roads on which it is possible to travel by any mode but not using 'mechanically propelled vehicles'.-Byway Open to All Traffic :In England & Wales, a Byway Open to...
which permits the use of motorised vehicles. Local restrictions
Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984
The Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, which provided powers to regulate or restrict traffic on UK roads, in the interest of safety. It superseded some earlier legislation, including the majority of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1967...
along many byway sections limit the use of motorised vehicles to the summer months. Under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000
Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 is a UK Act of Parliament which came into force on 30 November 2000.As of September 2007, not all sections of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act have yet come into force...
, many public rights of way in England and Wales that authorities had not explicitly classified as Bridleway or Byway defaulted to the classification "Restricted Byway" which precludes the use of motor vehicles at all times, except authorised vehicles and where required for access. As a result, much of the Ridgeway remains prohibited to motor vehicle use by the general public year round. However, the Ridgeway is the only means of access for many farms, especially in the more remote parts of the downs.
Despite the Ridgeway's artificial creation, the TV programme Seven Natural Wonders
Seven Natural Wonders
Seven Natural Wonders was a television series that was broadcast on BBC Two from 3 May to 20 June 2005. The programme took an area of England each week and, from votes by the people living in that area, showed the 'seven natural wonders' of that area in a programme.The programmes were:The series...
featured it in 2005 as one of the wonders of the South.
Places along the Ridgeway
Places that are near to (or on) The Ridgeway National Trail include (from West to East):
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Chilton, Oxfordshire Chilton is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse about southwest of Didcot. The parish was part of Berkshire until the 1974 local government boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire.... Didcot Didcot is a town and civil parish in Oxfordshire about south of Oxford. Until 1974 it was in Berkshire, but was transferred to Oxfordshire in that year, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire... Blewbury Blewbury is a village and civil parish at the foot of the Berkshire Downs about south of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Prehistory:... Streatley, Berkshire Streatley is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England.-Location:Streatley is about from Reading and from Oxford. It is in the Goring Gap on the River Thames and is directly across the river from the Oxfordshire village of Goring-on-Thames... Thame Thame is a town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about southwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury. It derives its toponym from the River Thame which flows past the north side of the town.... Chinnor Chinnor is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire about southeast of Thame. The village is a Spring line settlement on the Icknield Way below the Chiltern escarpment... Reading, Berkshire Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London.... Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead... Princes Risborough Princes Risborough is a small town in Buckinghamshire, England, about 9 miles south of Aylesbury and 8 miles north west of High Wycombe. Bledlow lies to the west and Monks Risborough to the east. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through the Chilterns,... Cadsden Cadsden is a hamlet in South Buckinghamshire situated in the between Princes Risborough and Great Missenden; once split between Upper Cadsden, and Lower Cadsden, it is now known as just Cadsden... Aylesbury Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands... Wendover Wendover is a market town that sits at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district... High Wycombe High Wycombe , commonly known as Wycombe and formally called Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe until 1946,is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is west-north-west of Charing Cross in London; this figure is engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town... Tring Tring is a small market town and also a civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, England. Situated north-west of London and linked to London by the old Roman road of Akeman Street, by the modern A41, by the Grand Union Canal and by rail lines to Euston Station, Tring is now largely a... Ivinghoe Beacon Ivinghoe Beacon is a prominent hill and landmark in the Chiltern Hills, standing 233 m above sea level. It is situated close to the villages of Ivinghoe, Aldbury in Buckinghamshire, the Ashridge Estate, and the village of Little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire, and is managed and owned by the... |
Maps
- Annotated map of the Ridgeway
- Ridgeway National Trail. Published by Harvey Maps, UK.