Lost lanes of Linton (Derbys) Pt 2

  Some final thoughts on the Wallway place name. In part 1, we saw how suggestions that the examples from the Isle of Wight and Somerset, might be interpreted as references to an embankment, possibly with an associated track or path. Could this apply to the Linton example - the 'way to the wall' (or bank)?

 Wallway/Main St. meets the junction of Colliery Lane and the Linton Heath road at Bates' Corner (after the shop on the corner). These latter two roads, along with the Swains Park road, form a north-east/south-west alignment. The track which preceded Colliery Lane, originally continued further to the south-west, until it was interrupted by the construction of the Netherseal Colliery branch line embankment c.1870.

 Until the 1897 boundary changes, this road alignment mirrored the county boundary, with Linton and Church Gresley on the Derbyshire side and Overseal and Netherseal, then parts of Leicestershire. The map extract below[1], shows the boundary as a dotted line: the Wallway houses appear too.


 Could the Derbyshire/Leicestershire boundary hereabouts have been marked by a bank (and ditch)? A probable comparison, although of uncertain date, can be found at Barnham St. Edmundsbury, marking both the parish and Suffolk/Norfolk county boundaries[2], while another bank, given a post medieval date, is shown on early Ordnance Survey maps, marking the boundary between the Welsh counties of Merionith and Denbighshire[3].

 Some parishes were marked by banks and ditches, as between Ripley and Denby in Derbyshire, where a surviving short section has been given a Saxon date[4]. When the Chilcote estate in Leicestershire was being advertised for sale, it was described as being 'co-extensive with the parish' and 'entirely within a ring-fence'[5]. Here, the river Mease forms much of the northern and western boundaries.

 Of course parks, forests and areas of woodland were often surrounded by a 'pale': a bank and/or a ditch, with a fence. A slight bank or ridge is shown along the road side of Swain's Park Wood on the early O.S. maps[6], although its date is uncertain and the county boundary turns away to the east.


 Does evidence for an embankment still exist along the alignment of roads? Possibly. A Google Earth elevation transect drawn from the high point in Linton village, southwards down the fields to the south-west of Main St, crossing Colliery Lane, then rising back up through what was Seal Wood, gives an interesting result.


 The profile appears to show Colliery Lane just on the Linton side edge of a low 'bump', approximately 2m higher than the low point in the adjacent field. However, I am not entirely confident of the positional accuracy: local inspection might confirm this. What is interesting is the appearance of two low mounds, c.1m high, overlooking Colliery Lane. They are evident in the profile above and the hill-shaded Lidar image below: natural or man-made? Such features were often used as marker-points on boundaries, or were placed where they were visible from adjacent routeways.

 Lastly, there is a track and bridal way at Harlton, Cambridgeshire known as 'Whole Way'. It runs down through an area known to be wet at times, then up onto higher ground. I have an acquaintance in the small south German village of Neiderhorbach, who lives on a street known as Zinkhohlweg ('sunken way'). It runs down through a small valley with a stream along the bottom. A brook runs along Linton Heath, beside Colliery Lane and continues some way to the south-west.

 In a late update, a German twitter correspondent posted about the Celtic hilltop settlement of Bleidenberg near Oberfell. The plateau was surrounded by a post slot wall. A chapel was built on the mountain and later the Wallfahrtskirche - 'pilgrimage chapel'!

 So, a number of possibilities, but no clear evidence for what influenced the origin of the Wallway place name at Linton. In the next part of this series, I hope to look at a few more of the Lost Lanes of Linton.

References:
1 Ordnance Survey First Series, 1835, Derbyshire sheet 63.     https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/
2 Suffolk Monument record: BNH 049.
  https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF14288
3 Gwynedd NPRN501002
 https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/501002                 
4 Derbyshire Historic Environment Record. Monument    record:MDR4700. https://her.derbyshire.gov.uk/Monument/MDR4700
5 The Chilcote Estate, Derbyshire: To Be Sold By Auction, The Derby Mercury, published 3rd November 1824, p1.   https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk                       
6 Ordnance Survey 25" to 1 mile map, 1901, Derbyshire sheet LX10. https://maps.nls.uk


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