In 1903 Hilaire Belloc researched and explored the prehistoric road from Winchester to Canterbury, traces of which are still visible today. His original sketchmaps from the 1904 book illustrate this webpage and show Mid-Hants Railway running beside the old road.


Extracts from:

These are of necessity brief extracts from the book, selected because 'The Old Road' from Winchester to Canterbury ran beside MHR, and because I found the book interesting. Click on any illustration for a larger version tw (Webmaster)	FASCINATION OF ANTIQUITY           9 To study something of great age until one grows familiar with it and almost to live in its time, is not merely to satisfy a curiosity or to establish aimless truths: it is rather to fulfil a function whose appetite has always rendered History a necessity. By the recovery of the Past, stuff and being are added to us; our lives which, lived in the present only, are a film or surface, take on body-are lifted into one dimension more. The soul is fed. Reverence and knowledge and security and the love of a good land-all these are increased or given by the pursuit of this kind of learning. Visions or intimations are confirmed. It is excellent to see perpetual agony and failure perpetually breeding the only enduring things; it is excellent to see the crimes we know ground under the slow wheels whose pon- derous advance we can hardly note during the flash of one human life. One may say that historical learning grants men glimpses of life completed and a whole; and such a vision should be the chief solace of whatever is mortal and cut off imperfectly from fulfilment. Now of all that study the chief charm lies
10 ON THE ROAD AND THE in mere antiquity. No one truly loves history who is not more exalted according to the greater age of the new things he finds. Though things are less observable as they are farther away, yet their appeal is directly increased by such a distance in a manner which all know though none can define it. It is not illusion; perhaps an ultimate reality stands out when the details are obscured. At any rate it is the appeal which increases as we pass further from the memories of childhood, or from the backward vision of those groups of mountain which seem to rise higher and more awfully into the air as we abandon them across the plains. Antiquity of that degree conveys -I cannot pretend to say how- echoes which are exactly attuned to whatever is least perishable in us. After the present and manifold voice of Religion to which these echoes lead, and with which in a sense they merge, 1 know of nothing more nobly answering the perpetual questioning of a man. Nor of all the vulgar follies about us is any more despicable than that which regards the future with complacency, and finds nothing but imperfection in that innocent,	FASCINATION OF ANTIQUITY 11 creative, and wondering past which the antiquaries and geologists have revealed to us. For my part I desired to step exactly in the footprints of such ancestors. I believed that, as I followed their hesitations at the river crossings, as I climbed where they had climbed to a shrine whence they also had seen a wide plain, as I suffered the fatigue they suffered, and laboriously chose, as they had chosen, the proper soils for going, some. thing of their much keener life would wake again in the blood I drew from them, and that in a sort I should forget the vileness of my own time, and renew for some few days the better freedom of that vigorous morning when men were already erect, articulate, and worshipping God, but not yet broken by complexity and the long accumulation of evil. It was perhaps a year ago that I determined to follow and piously to recover the whole of that doubtful trail whereby they painfully made their way from one centre of their common life to the sea, which was at once their chief mystery and their only passage to the rest of their race-from Hampshire to the Straits of Dover. Many,
12 ON THE ROAD I knew, had written about that road; much of it was known, but much also was lost. No one, to my knowledge, had explored it in its entirety. First, therefore, I read what had been written about this most ancient way, I visited men who were especially learned in geology and in antiquarian knowledge, I took notes from them, and I carefully studied the maps of all sorts that could help me in my business. Then, taking, one companion, I set out late in December to recover and map out yard by yard all that could be recovered and mapped out of The Old Road. No better task could be put before a man, and the way in which 1 accomplished it my readers shall judge in the essay which follows this introduction, and in the diary of my journey with which the book shall close.
	OF THE ROAD 131 On the other hand, there are as many positive arguments in favour of the thesis that the ford was used by the oldest road from Winchester to Farnham. Between these two centres, as will be seen in a moment by the sketch map on p. 137, a high but narrow watershed had to be crossed. To approach this watershed by the easiest route must have been the object of the traveller, and, as the map will show, to cross at this ford, go straight across the hill to Bishop Sutton, and thence follow the Ropley valley was to go in a direct line to one's object. As we talked to the villagers and gathered their traditions, we found that this ford had been of capital importance. The old church of the village stood just beside the river, and in such a position that the road to the ford passed just by its southern porch. It has disappeared 'in the year of the mobbing,' say the peasants: that is, I suppose, in 1831 ; but the consecrated land around it is still enclosed, and its site must have clustered the whole place about the riverside. It stood, moreover, close against the ford; and the Old Road that skirted the
132 THE EXPLORATION churchyard is marked by an alignment of yews and other trees leading directly to the river. Finally, when we accepted the hypothesis and crossed the river, we found a road corresponding to what the old track should be. It has in the past been somewhat neglected, but it is now a metalled lane; it is without any abrupt turn or corner, and leads directly over the hill in the direction of Bishop Sutton, the Ropley valley, and so at last to the watershed, the surmounting of which was the whole object of the trail from this point onwards. The points I have mentioned will be made clearer, perhaps, by a sketch map, in which the dark patches and lines represent the water ways at this confluence which forms the Itchen. The Old Road I have indicated by a dotted line, but for its exact course it would be advisable for readers to refer to an Ordnance map. All these pieces of evidence supporting one another seemed to us sufficient to determine the trajectory at this point. The ford, the position of the church, the number of streams that would have to be crossed were	OF THE ROAD 133 the valley to be further pursued, the low marshy ground at the confluence of these streams, the non- existence of any ancient settlement or trace of a road at the base of Alresford Hill, the fact that the only village to which such a track could lead is of comparatively recent creation, the existence of an old track, direct in its alignment, proceeding straight from the ford, and pointing without deviation to Bishop Sutton church and the Ropley valley all these facts combined settled any doubts upon the way we should go. We climbed and followed the lane to the top of the hill. These two miles of the way gave us (under the evening for it was the falling of the light) glimpses of the Itchen westward
134 THE EXPLORATION and away behind us. The road had the merit of all savage trails, and of all the tracks a man still takes who is a-foot and free and can make by the shortest line for his goal: it enjoyed the hills. It carried two clear summits in its flight, and from each we saw those extended views which to the first men were not only a delight, but a security and a guide. It was easy to understand how from these elevations they planned their direct advance upon the ridge of the watershed which lay far before us, eastward, under the advancing night. As they also must have done, we looked backwards, and traced with our eyes the sharp lines of light in the river we had just abandoned. We so halted and watched till darkness had completely fallen ; then we turned down northward to Alresford to sleep, and next morning before daybreak, when we had satisfied the police who had arrested us upon suspicion of I know not what crime, we took the hill again and rejoined the Old Road. By daylight we had come down Whitehill Lane, the steep pitch into Bishop Sutton, and were tramping up that vale	OF THE ROAD 135 which makes for the watershed, and so leads to the corresponding vale of Alton upon the further side. Here, at least as far as the Anchor Inn, and somewhat further, the modern highway corresponds to the Old Road. It thus follows the lowest of the valley, but there is no reason at first why it should not do so. The rise is fairly steady, the ground dry (an insignificant stream gradually disappears beneath the chalk), and the direction points straight to the shortest approach for the ridge which cuts off the basin of the Channel from that of the Thames. This direction, does not, however, long continue. The valley curves somewhat to the north, and it might be presumed that the original way, making more directly for the saddle of the watershed, would gradually climb the southern hillside. By so doing it would find two advantages: it would take a shorter cut, and it would conquer at one stretch, and rapidly, the main part of the 360 feet between the Anchor Inn and the summit. It was but a guess that the Old Road would probably take a straight line upwards.
136 THE EXPLORATION The curve of the modern road does not carry it more than half a mile from the direct alignment. The Old Road might quite well have suffered such a deviation, and we were in some doubt when we proceeded to gather our evidence. That evidence, however, proved fairly conclusive. There is a tradition, which Mrs. Adie has justly recognised, that the pilgrims of the Middle Ages passed through Ropley.(1) What is more important to our purpose, Ropley has provided a discovery of British antiquities, Celtic torques, near the track which the more direct line to the watershed would presuppose. We had further the place name 'Street' to guide us: it is a word almost invariably found in connection with a roadway more or or less ancient ; later on we found many examples of it upon this same road.(2) Here 1 Their passage is an excellent example of the Reversion of the Pilgrimage to an ancient road. The regular road in the thirteenth century was presumably that by Chawton Wood and Bighton, mentioned 'by Duthie, who finds it in a charter of Henry iii.'s. (This charter, it is only fair to add, was never discovered by his executors.) 2 Thus West Street and Broad Street near Lenham, Dun Street at the edge of Eastwell, the old name for Albury (Weston Street), etc.	OF THE ROAD 137 the hamlet of Gilbert Street lay to the south of our hypothetical alignment, and another, named North Street, just to the north of it.                                                                                    We further noted upon our map that a very considerable portion of the exact alignment drawn from the main road at the Anchor Inn to the saddle of the watershed would coincide precisely with a lane, which, when we came to examine it, gave every evidence of high antiquity. Possessed of such evidence, it was our business to see whether investigation upon the spot would confirm the conclusion to
138 THE EXPLORATION which they pointed. There was enough discovered so to confirm it, though the Old Road at this point has disappeared in several places under the plough. The course of our discovery will be best followed with the aid of this rough map, whereon are sketched the contour lines, the trace of the Old Road, and the watershed. About half a mile from the 'Anchor' at the end of the avenue of trees which here dignifies the turnpike and just after the cross roads,(1) in a meadow which lay to the right of the road, my companion noticed an embankment, perfectly straight, slightly diverging southward from the main road as the line we were seeking should diverge, and (as we found by standing upon it and taking its direction) pointing directly at the saddle of the watershed. Whether it was continued through the garden of the Chequers Inn (a very few yards) I would not trespass to inquire: in the three fields 1 The point where the line leaves the modern road is east of Bury Lane, just past a farm called Dean Farm. The ridge is first noticeable in the field marked 134 in the 1/2500" Ordnance Map for Hampshire [XLii. 7, Old Series, 1870, Ropley Parish].	OF THE ROAD 139 beyond, it had entirely disappeared.(1) After this gap, however, there is a boundary, with an old hedge running along it and a path or cartway of a sort.(2) These carry us exactly the same direction down a short slope, across a lane called Cow Lane, and on to the Manor Farm at North Street. During this stretch of a mile there was nothing more to guide us. The division between fields and properties very often follows the line of some common way: one could not say more. But the significant fact which, as we believe, permitted us to bridge the gap was this: that the embankment we had first discovered, and the hedge and path (which proceeded in the same line after the, loss of the road over the two fields) each pointed directly towards the lane (Brisland Lane) which we entered close to the Manor Farm (3)which presented, as we found, such marks 1 These fields are marked 191, 192, and 194 on 1/2500" Ordnance Map, Hampshire, Old Series, 1870, XLii 8. 2 The boundary between the fields marked 201, and 202 3 in map cited above. The track is again lost for a short distance in crossing the field marked 205. 3 The last few yards of the alignment follow the boundary between plots marked 219 and 216 in map already quoted.
140 THE EXPLORATION of antiquity, which takes the hill steeply, and which, on the plateau above, continues to aim straight at the saddle of the water shed . It is difficult to express in a written description the sentiment of conviction which the actual view of such an alignment conveyed. When we had followed the lane up the steep hill and stood by Brisland farmhouse, looking back from that height we could see the lane we had been following, the hedge, the corner of the garden of the 'Chequers,' the embankment beyond, all in one, stretched out like parti-coloured sections of one string, and the two gaps did but emphasise the exactitude of the line. Turning again in the direction which we were to follow, the evidence of ancient usage grew clearer. We were upon one of those abandoned grassy roads, which are found here and there in all parts of England ; it ran clear away before us for a couple of miles. It was very broad-twenty yards perhaps. The hedges stood upon either side, guarding land that had been no man's land since	OF THE ROAD 141 public protection first secured the rude communications of the country. No one who had seen portions of the Icknield Way upon the Chilterns, or of this same Old, Road where it has decayed upon the Kentish hills, could doubt the nature of what we saw. Long fallen into disuse, it had yet escaped the marauding landlords during three centuries of encroachment. They had not even narrowed it. So much of its common character remained: it was treeless, wide, and the most of it neglected; never metalled during all the one hundred and fifty years which have transformed English highways. It was the most desolate, as it was the most convincing, fragment of the Old Road we had set out to find. It had an abominable surface; we had to pick our way from one dry place to another over the enormous ruts which recent carts had made. For generations the lane had been untenanted; but there is a place where, in the last few years, an extraordinary little town of bungalows and wooden cottages had arisen upon either side of the lane.
142 THE EXPLORATION Not satisfied with the map, we asked of a man who was carrying milk what local name was given to this venerable street. He told us that the part in which we were walking was called Blackberry Lane, but that it had various names at different parts: and as he could tell us nothing more, we left him. At the very summit this way joined a modern, well made lane, called Farringdon Lane, turned to the left and north, and immediately fell into the main London road, which had been climbing from the valley below and was here at the thirteenth milestone. The Old Road, suffering no deviation, plunged into a wood, and reappeared just at the summit of the pan perhaps a quarter of a mile further. It is the point where the Ordnance map marks a height of 683 feet, and where one finally leaves the valley of the Itchen to enter that of the Wey. The complexity of this corner is best understood in the sketch map on the follow page. At the point where the Old Road leaves the wood, it merges again into the London	OF THE ROAD 143 turnpike, which turns its direction, (as the map shows) so as to correspond with the direction of the Old Road. This identity between the prehistoric and the modern is maintained nearly as far as Alton, and, if we except a short gap before that town, the coincidence of the Old Road and some existing highway may be said to continue right on to Puttenham, a distance of seventeen miles. The valley which now opened eastward under the dull morning light reminded me of one of those noble dales which diversify the long slope of the Chiltern Hills. Like them it had the round sweep of the Chalk;
144 THE EXPLORATION beeches, the trees of the Chalk, adorned it; its direction was tha same, its dryness, its neat turf; but it lacked the distant horizons. For two miles the road, magnificent in surface and in breadth, one of the finest in England, followed the bottom of the valley, falling in that distance some 300 feet; and in all this part it was most evidently the oldest of ways across these hills. There could be repeated of it what, has been said above with regard to the road between Bishop Sutton and Ropley, and what will appear further on in the valley of the Wey: that any track, ancient or modern, was bound to follow the same course. For the dry and porous soil permitted a journey even under the earliest conditions along the lowest points, and, so permitted, such a journey had the advantage of descending by the easiest gradient. Had it taken to the hillside it would have fallen at last upon Alton by way of a steep spur. Moreover, the bottom of the valley is here constant in direction, not curving as we had found it on the far side of the watershed, and this direction deviates little from the straight line to Alton.	OF THE ROAD 145 'These characters do not attach to the London turnpike after the fifteenth milestone is passed; it turns somewhat sharply to the right (or southward) and falls by a corner into the road from the Meon valley at the entry of Chawton village. Such a course one may be certain was not followed by the Old Road. It could not, but have preserved the alignment which the valley had already given it, and which corresponds, moreover, with the High Street of Alton, itself. For these seven furlongs there can be no doubt that it continued straight along the dip of the valley and entered Alton on the northern side(1) of the triangular common called 'The Butts,' by which one approaches the town from the southwest. We were unable to prove this by direct examination ; the main line of railway has here obliterated much by an embankment, and to this has been added all the new work of the Meon valley line, and the junction. The ground has therefore lost all its original character, and the oldest marks have disappeared. We made no 1  Moreover from this point the medieval  road to Old Alresford mentioned above left Alton.
146 THE EXPLORATION attempt to follow the direct path for this short mile. We descended the high-road round by Chawton to Alton, and the first division of our task, the division in which a greater proportion of uncertainty would exist than in any other, was accomplished, Comforted by such a thought, we drank mild ale at the 'Three Tuns' for about half an hour.	(these are extracts from ... 'The Old Road' by Hilaire Belloc ....published 1904)

   

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