Colin's history and archaeology blog

Some further Wallway street name research.  In the second part of the Via Devana blog series, I considered some possible options for the Roman route's continuation beyond the junction with Ryknild Street and its use as a salt road. One route to the northwest might have passed through the Cheshire salt producing region. Women extracting salt from brinewater springs in Nantwich were referred to as 'Wallers' in the town's medieval records. [1] An inference could be made that the Linton Wallway might have been a strand of one of the west/east salt routes like the Walton Way, which ran just to the south of Linton, or that it ran through an area which was wet, where groundwater welled up.  Another perhaps more reasonable explanation came to light while studying preparatory Ordnance Survey drawings of west Cambridgeshire. [2] To the east of Great Gransden is an area of rough pasture labeled 'Walland Common'. The English Place Name Society (EPNS) [3] gives 'land...

  A 'lost road' lost again!   In part one of the 'lost road' blog, I traced the route of the Via Devana from the south of Cambridge through to Ryknild Street in Staffordshire, by way of Leicester and a River Trent crossing on the Derbys/Staffs border. In part two, I consider some possible options for the route continuing to the west and/or northwest of Ryknild Street.  After meeting Ryknild Street, it is unclear exactly which direction the Via Devana route may have taken. Turning to the southwest a traveller could have reached Watling Street at Wall (Letocetum), then proceeded via Water Eaton (Pennocrucium) and Whitchurch (Mediolanum) to Chester (Deva). The alternative would have been to turn northeast on Ryknild Street to reach Littlechester (Derventio) at Derby. From Littlechester, a road ran due west to Rocester, then on to Upper Teen where it turned to the northwest to Chesterton north of Newcastle under Lyme. Although the route from here is again unclear; it could ...

 The name Via Devana was coined by the 18th century Cambridge antiquarian Dr Charles Mason and was said to be a route which connected Roman Colchester (Camulodunum) to Roman Chester (Deva) [1] . Ivan Margary [2] described the route from Godmanchester (Durovigutum) to Colchester as 'Via Devana' and numbered it road 24. Early Ordnance Survey (O.S.) maps show what was the Cambridge Road, then the A1198 and now largely the A1307/A14 Godmanchester to Cambridge road as 'Via Devana'. The route follows a track known as 'Worsted' or 'Wool Street' which runs south from Cambridge as green lanes and tracks. At Worsted Lodge on the modern A11 it crossed a Romanised section of the ancient 'Icknield Way'.  In 1959 a 10.5-mile (16.8km) length of gas main was laid along Worsted Street, the work being monitored by the archaeologist P.C. Dewhurst [3] . The trenching machine used produced a clean 3' (0.91m) deep trench, which allowed observation of the Roman ro...

  Launders Lane update  Although I have only seen small excerpts of it, there is a rather marvellous late C16th, or early C17th map in Derbyshire Record Office (DRO) titled 'Procession Way Plan of the Seale Estate' [1] . It purports to show the extent of the Gresley family's estate called 'Seale', consisting largely of the parishes of Overseal and Netherseal, in what was then part of Leicestershire. The Procession Way is shown surrounding the estate and may have been periodically 'beaten' to ensure that its boundaries remained well-defined. Dr Mark Knight of Overseal (pers. comm.), suggests that the Park Road, Linton Heath, Colliery Lane alignment [2] , as well as marking part of the county boundary with Derbyshire, might also be a relic of the Procession Way.   The villages within and nearby the estate are drawn with surrounding hedges or fences and have gates with lanes leading out into the fields. An area of woodland is also shown surrounded by a hedge or...

 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...