Colin's history and archaeology blog

 The Huntingdonshire (now Cambridgeshire) Bullock Road runs for c.18km from the Elton to Alwalton road west of Peterborough, mainly along high land between 50-60m, south to Upton near Alconbury. From here it may have joined Ermine Street to Huntingdon and probably on to St Ives, which had held a Bullock market in Front Street until 1886, or continued further south. [1]    The present road is a mainly tarmacked, sometimes single-track road. It may have remained as an entirely green lane until the 20th century, with some sections towards the south remaining so. These are subject to Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO), where gates or barriers may be locked shut, for vehicles of more than two wheels during the winter. Locked TRO gate on the Bullock Road at Great Gidding. (Photo: Google Earth).  Originally the road may have continued north of the Elton Road to reach Wansford. Perhaps it followed the Great North Road, which diverged from the Roman Ermine Street at Water...

 During the Second World War, the skies above Cambridgeshire and much of the east of England were filled with the sounds of aircraft, both Allied and Axis. A find from a recent Cambridge Archaeology Field Group fieldwalking exercise at Orwell, brought back to light one local incident from those dark times.  The group had been walking fields at Rectory Farm Orwell with the permission of the National Trust. There were generally few finds from these fields, however, we did find the remains of a 20mm cannon shell casing. Stamped on the end cap was 1942, the year of manufacture and K2, which indicates that it was a type produced by Kynoch at Standish, Greater Manchester, part of ICI. [1]  20mm cannons formed part of the armaments of several WWII aircraft, including versions of the Spitfire, Hurricane and pertinent to this article, the De Havilland Mosquito. The 20mm cannon shell casing from Orwell. (Photos: T Dymott)  Mosquitos were wooden-framed, multi-role twin-engine a...

 In this fourth part of the series, I will discuss some of the roads and lanes around the core of the village, which have been lost or changed.  Back Lane (didn't most towns and villages have one), is the most straightforward one to find. It is clearly marked in this map extract of 1945 below [1] . The Coates' were living at Back Lane in 1939 and probably continuously up to 1947 and the death of grandfather William.  From near the northwest end of Main Street, it ran in a southwesterly direction, up and over the high point in the village, then back down before turning slightly westwards, to a junction with High Street. It was later topologically appropriately renamed The Crest, when the Princess Avenue development was built. O.S. 25" to 1 mile, published 1945, Derbyshire sheet LX.13  Looking at the 1821/22 'Hartshorn' map, some of the lanes around Linton appear to have been drawn a little irregularly, particularly those leading to Cauldwell and Botany Bay [2] . How...

 In the first part of this series, we read that farmer W.F. Tunnadine complained to Swadlincote magistrates, about the state of repair of Wood Lane, leading from Wallway to Launders Lane. This part will discuss the latter two 'lost lanes'.  On reading the name Wood Lane, one might think in terms of it being Seal Wood Lane, which diverges from Colliery Lane, a little way from the junction with Main St. However, this lane only appeared in its present form, some time after the publication of the 1884 Ordnance Survey 6" to 1 mile map. There were however tracks leading through Seal Wood ,  but these may have been for woodland use or management [1] . O.S. 6" to 1 mile map 1884, Derbyshire, sheet LX.SW  From a newspaper notice of a sale of cut timber in 1861 [2] , we learn that William Tunnadine was farming at Grange Wood Farm, 'near Seal Wood'. In the 1851 census, he was recorded as living at 'The Wood Farm' [3] and in 1871, just 'Seal Wood': probab...

  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:...

 Through researching aspects of the history of my childhood home of Linton, South Derbyshire, I have come across the names of roads and lanes which have gone out of use or changed.  For instance, in a newspaper report of a sitting of the Petty Sessions at Swadlincote, on 26th October 1869, Linton farmer W.F.Tunnadine, summoned the Swadlincote Highways Board for 'neglecting to repair a certain highway in the township of Linton, called Wood Lane, leading from Wallway to Launders Lane (1) . Council for the Highways board replied that 'the road in question is not a common highway, but an occupation road for the convenience of farmers to get to their land' - case dismissed! Just where were these lanes?  Let's start with Wallway. Despite living in Linton from 1954 - 1974, I first came across this name quite recently on seeing copies of the 1835 Ordnance Survey first series topological maps (2) . A small group of properties named 'Wallway Houses', is indicated about h...