Two updates, one on 29th April - the location of the village of Chelsworth.
The other on 24th April, writings and research by Rev. H. Copinger Hill.
The other on 24th April, writings and research by Rev. H. Copinger Hill.
If you have stumbled across this research and wondered how and why it came about, I thought I should offer an explanation. From an early age I’ve been keen to follow up a story handed down through some four generations of my family, that Peddars Way went all the way from Colchester to the Norfolk coast. Having been born and raised in a West Norfolk village where Peddars Way runs, this family story really resonated with me. On 22nd September 2020 I’ll be leaving Colchester on a charity walk, raising funds for Little Massingham Church. More details at the foot of this page.
Anyone walking north from Colchester would encounter one major problem, water! The more maps I studied, the more areas of water I saw! The River Stour and Box and other rivulets dominate the border area between north Essex and Suffolk, this would definitely influence my planning and the tracing of Peddars Way.
A friend suggested the River Stour might have been tidal and navigable further inland during the Roman and pre-Roman period. I thought this idea was definitely worth exploring, so I wrote to the River Stour Trust.
My contact there confirmed the Stour was tidal from just up river of Manningtree and suggested, given the glacial formation of the estuary, it might be that the river was tidal during the Roman period too. And the first crossing point would be some distance inland.
I also contacted various knowledgeable people here in Colchester, asking if they had come across ancient roads relating to the Peddars Way route - Colchester to the Norfolk coast - they hadn’t. One mentioned the route from Colchester to Stratford St Mary, which then continued on to Venta Icinorum, known by the Romans as ‘the market of the Iceni'. Venta Icinorum, modern day, Caster St Edmund, Norfolk.
I wasn’t particularly successful when I researched the history of ‘Pedders Cross’, Colchester. A slightly different spelling, to the one used for Peddars Way. Pedders Cross is marked by a plaque at the crossroads of Shrub End Road, Straight Road and Gosbecks Road. Interestingly, it is very close to the Gosbecks Iron Age and Romano - British site. There is a pathway running north, opposite the Gosbecks site, next to Brickwall Farm. This path joins Gryme’s Dyke, part of the ancient defences of Colchester.
Jo Edwards, researched the history of Pedders Cross for the Colchester Civic Society - Plaque Trails. She found that it was one of the three known mediaeval crosses in the ancient large parish of Lexden. It was a marker or boundary cross or could have been on a pilgrim route to Walsingham.
As my research and map scrutiny continued, I made some startling discoveries. Looking closer at an OS map I was thrilled to see ‘Peddars Way’ showing slightly north of Stanton Chare, Suffolk. This was several miles south of Knettishall Heath where the route officially stops.
I wasn’t particularly successful when I researched the history of ‘Pedders Cross’, Colchester. A slightly different spelling, to the one used for Peddars Way. Pedders Cross is marked by a plaque at the crossroads of Shrub End Road, Straight Road and Gosbecks Road. Interestingly, it is very close to the Gosbecks Iron Age and Romano - British site. There is a pathway running north, opposite the Gosbecks site, next to Brickwall Farm. This path joins Gryme’s Dyke, part of the ancient defences of Colchester.
Jo Edwards, researched the history of Pedders Cross for the Colchester Civic Society - Plaque Trails. She found that it was one of the three known mediaeval crosses in the ancient large parish of Lexden. It was a marker or boundary cross or could have been on a pilgrim route to Walsingham.
As my research and map scrutiny continued, I made some startling discoveries. Looking closer at an OS map I was thrilled to see ‘Peddars Way’ showing slightly north of Stanton Chare, Suffolk. This was several miles south of Knettishall Heath where the route officially stops.
Further south, between Woolpit and Hitcham there are some very straight sections of roads and paths; one of which is marked ‘Roman’!
I was lent a copy of Roman Colchester by M R Hull. Extract below.
Colchester to the north by Nayland. Whether there was a Roman Rye Gate is unknown, though there is now a ford opposite it’s possible site. There are, however, no records of a road-metalling found north or south of it. The NE. Postern gate was not in use for much of the Roman period, but gravelling resembling road-metal was seen in May 1930, 30 yards east of the park boundary and 60 yards north of the gate. Its surface was much broken by pits containing human bones, which have been ascribed (we think without reason) to the siege of 1648. P. G. Laver noted road-metal, which he took to indicate a ford, in the banks of the Colne at a point almost in line...
Laver explored other routes north, including one towards Mile End and Horkesley and Horseley Heath where there is a Roman agger, now known as Horkesley Causeway and runs in a straight line through the parish of Great Horkesley to Nayland.
Late last month the following information was sent to me by another friend. She had come across a page in a book she had bought locally. The Face of Britain: East Anglia – A Survey of England's Eastern Counties 1947 -8 by Doreen Wallace BT Batsford 3rd. Ed.
Castle Acre is situated on the practically straight line of the Peddar's Way, a road much older than Roman roads. This track, quite plainly to be seen in many parts of the Breckland where no plough has ever broken it up, was supposed to run from the coast at a point a little north of Hunstanton, right down to Colchester. Much of it is lost, in the cultivated land. The counties are full of green lanes, many of which lead to nowhere in particular: If they are on the straight line, the chances are that they are bits of Peddar's Way....
...Seeing that we know Peddar's Way to be Pre-Roman, and Peddar's Way is as straight as man could make it, why should we suppose that the Romans alone had the notion of making straight roads? The Via Devana and the Ermine Street, both of which are in evidence elsewhere in East Anglia, are generally called Roman roads, but the likelihood is that they were British, made use of and made sound by the Romans....
Quite early on in my research I found the following; taken from the Suffolk Archives – Parish of Ixworth.
Communications: Roads: Formerly situated at junction of Peddars Way (Colchester–North Norfolk coast) and Roman Road (Bildeston–Holme-next-the-Sea). Later situated on Bury St Edmunds – Norwich Turnpike Road. Tollgate situated near to bridge 17/18th cent. Situated at junction of A143 and A1088 Bury St Edmunds–Norwich and Ipswich–Thetford roads 20th cent. Roads also to Stowlangtoft, Ixworth Thorpe and Honington, Stanton, Bardwell, Walsham le Willows and Pakenham...
I then came across ROMAN ROADS IN BRITAIN by the late Thomas Codrington.
...Peddars Way is easily followed from the Norfolk coast near Hunstanton for 48 miles pointing to Colchester, and more doubtfully for another 14 miles in the same direction, and then there is little trace for the remaining 17 miles to Colchester....
...Beyond Nayland there was perhaps a road communicating with Peddars Way through Woolpit, but no traces of it appear for 13 miles, beyond which to the north of Hitcham there are indications of a road due north...
…Peddars Way. — The indications of a Roman road from the direction of Colchester towards Woolpit have been referred to as appearing on the north of Hitcham; and it has been mentioned that of a supposed road from Stratford St. Mary by Hadleigh to Woolpit there is little evidence until the same indications of a Roman road are reached. On the north of Hitcham, about 16 miles from Colchester, the present road turns towards Stowmarket, and Hitcham Street continues on, and then a lane pointing due north is followed for three-quarters of a mile by a parish boundary, which runs on across country for a mile to a highway, and follows it for a mile to Pay Street Green. At Clopton Green, a mile and a quarter further north, a lane takes up the same one for a mile, to within a mile of Woolpit, which has been supposed to be the site of a Roman station. About four miles north of Woolpit in the same direction is Stowlangoft, where Roman remains have been found, and three miles further is Stanton, on the west of which the most southerly trace of Peddars Way is shown on the old Ordnance map. This remarkable road can be traced hence for 45 miles to the north coast of Norfolk. It has been called British, but it has all the characteristics of Roman laying out, and is indeed the best preserved Roman road in East Anglia. The old Ordnance map shows Peddars Way crossing the road from Honington to Barningham, one mile west of the latter place, and passing by Street Farm on the west of Coney Weston to the Little Ouse. It was formerly plain on Barningham Common, and on Knittishall Common to the south of the river. A parish boundary continues in the same straight line for three miles to Brettenham Heath, crossing the river Thet, four miles east of Thetford....
...Peddars Way has been said to pass through neither town nor village, and it is true that from Ringstead southwards as far as it can be traced, about 45 miles. Castle Acre is the only village upon it, and those near it are but small. In this respect it resembles the Foss Way...
I thought one of the most telling sentences appears in the paragraph directly above.
The Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History have a very interesting pdf which they have reproduced. It was written by the The Rev H Copinger Hill. Volume XVIII Part 3 (1924) this research includes his maps. He goes into a great deal of detail about Peddars Way or as he refers to it, 'Peddar Way'.
...Peddars Way has been said to pass through neither town nor village,...This is certainly the case where it passes through Great and Little Massingham. At Little Massingham, in places it is almost on the parish boundary. It passes a field known as 'Church Fallow', where until recent years there were visible signs of the original church, long abandoned, and before the present one was built.
The Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History have a very interesting pdf which they have reproduced. It was written by the The Rev H Copinger Hill. Volume XVIII Part 3 (1924) this research includes his maps. He goes into a great deal of detail about Peddars Way or as he refers to it, 'Peddar Way'.
Chelsworth is one of the villages along the route we will be walking through. I was particularly intrigued to read the following on the village website because it mentions Peddars Way.
It is considered very likely that the site dates back to Roman times. The village is thought to have developed next to a Roman Road (close to Peddars Way, catalogue as Route 33a) which connected the Roman road system to the highest navigable point on the River Brett. Archaeological evidence for Roman occupation has been found nearby.Having gathered so much research, at last I had the beginnings of a plan, and how I would plot the course. My journey will take me in a northerly direction, walking towards Mile End Road and on through Great Horkesley to Nayland. I'd decided not to take the road to Stratford St Mary as I needed a safer walking route, and I wasn't convinced that this would be the road the Romans would have taken if they were travelling north towards west Norfolk. I needed to find the straightest and most direct way from Colchester, and decided the Romans would have wanted to take the shortest and most direct route to and from the town.
For the next few months I went into Roman mode! I pored over yet more maps, so much so - when I watched TV - if spotted a landscape shot I found myself scanning the horizon for straight roads! It didn't stop there, when out walking I found I was scrutinising every space, park and field! Some of the research had been immensely helpful, it had given me names of places where other researches thought the road had gone. Stowlangtoft, Woolpit, Poy Street Green, Hitcham, Bildeston, etc. And from my own observations, Peddars Way didn't have to go into the heart of the village, it just needed to be within the parish boundaries.
With this in mind, I was able to move forward and plan my journey. Over time some of the old byways have vanished, and even now – having walked a short part of the route – farmers have ploughed up some of the footpaths. On one section I was only able to walk a slightly tenuous trail across fields using satellite navigation!
After months of searching, I'm fairly confident that as I walk north, many sections of the Suffolk route and obviously the known Norfolk sections, will be Peddars Way!
NB: To glean more information, I also checked ancient maps, two printed publications by Larks Press: 'Hodskinson's Map of Suffolk in 1783 and Faden's Map of Norfolk: First printed in 1797. Plus other online maps, British History online, numerous books, and websites.
Larks Press
Research by Rosemary Jewers © 2020
If you’d like to donate, this is the link to my Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rosemary-peddars-walk
For cash and cheques:
Lings Country Goods, have kindly offered to accept the cash and cheque donations. Cheques can be made payable to Rosemary Jewers.
Lings Country Goods, Lynn Lane, Gt Massingham, King’s Lynn PE32 2HJ
My walking companion, Rina and I welcome all who would like to join us walking sections of this route. The image below gives contact details, dates and times of where we will be and when we start each day. Click on the image below to enlarge it.
Research by Rosemary Jewers © 2020
If you’d like to donate, this is the link to my Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rosemary-peddars-walk
For cash and cheques:
Lings Country Goods, have kindly offered to accept the cash and cheque donations. Cheques can be made payable to Rosemary Jewers.
Lings Country Goods, Lynn Lane, Gt Massingham, King’s Lynn PE32 2HJ
My walking companion, Rina and I welcome all who would like to join us walking sections of this route. The image below gives contact details, dates and times of where we will be and when we start each day. Click on the image below to enlarge it.
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