My header photo is from a 1912 painting by Spencer Frederick Gore.
The Icknield Way may be the oldest road in Britain. It would have been used before the Romans arrived, following the chalkland ridges between ancient settlements. It is thought that several tracks evolved, maybe in parallel with each other. It has been suggested that the Romans constructed the Lower Icknield Way as a parallel alternative route to the prehistoric Upper Icknield Way. A version of it appears on OS maps in historic Gothic writing. The name is of Celto-British origin and is potentially linked to the Iceni tribe from East Anglia, who may have used the route for trade from the Neolithic period.
Over the years, many old ways disappeared due to disuse. More disappeared under the plough, and some have become our modern roads. Let’s see how the Icknield Way has fared.
From a long-distance walking perspective, it links The Ridgeway to the Peddars Way and is part of the Great Chalk Way, which spans from Wessex to the Wash. I have traversed much of this way, and now is the time to consider walking the missing links: the Icknield Way and the Wessex Ridgeway.
The Icknield Way Association has produced a guidebook for a walkers’ route. The Icknield Way Path.
“The Icknield Way Path takes the walker over some delightful country, including the Chilterns and Breckland, often with striking panoramic views, through charming villages, and along miles of green lanes.
An attempt has been made to provide the most pleasant walking route as close as possible to the ancient way, keeping to rights of way and avoiding unnecessary road walking.”
I had planned to walk the Icknield section in mid-August, but a mini heatwave delayed me. As temperatures return to normal, it is time to start planning again. Hotels, trains and buses. I need to get down to Tring first. I was last there when Mel and I had finished the Ridgeway at Ivinghoe Beacon. An early morning bus will then be needed to get to the base of Ivinghoe Beacon. From there on, aĺl will be new to me, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. In five days, I’ll probably only get to Royston.
“The long white roads… are a temptation. What quests they propose! They take us away to the thin air of the future or to the underworld of the past,” Edward Thomas,1909.
It sounds interesting BC, I’m looking forward to reading more.
Just one of my ‘little walks’.
We’ll see what transpires.
I’ve just downloaded the route from LDWA but it only shows the IW further to the east from Ivinghoe. Perhaps you will join that route somewhere south of Luton? I wish you well and look forward to more. Off to bed now.
I’m starting at Ivinghoe Beacon, where the Ridgeway finishes, although they are the same Chaĺkway.
Sounds like a fine adventure. The Icknield Way pops up in Macfarlane’s The Old Ways.
Yes, you have just reminded me of Macfarlanes Old Ways, will reread it as soon as I’m back.