A History of the Routes Through Piddington
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A history of routes through Piddington, and early occupation Simon Cains The hamlet of Piddington lies on the A40 between West Wycombe and Stokenchurch ( frequently confused with the larger Piddingtons in Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire ). The first houses did not appear until 1903 when Benjamin North’s furniture factory moved here from West Wycombe, but the location has a long and interesting history. A40 route Travellers from the London area needing to travel north-west have a choice of easy routes through the Chilterns following the low valleys known to geographers as “wind-gaps”, for instance through Princes Risborough, Wendover, or Tring. But travellers wanting a direct route to or from further west, e.g. to Oxford, have no cut-throughs, the Chiltern ridge line is continuous down to the Thames at Goring, so the routes have to climb over the ridge. The route from West Wycombe through Piddington and Studley Green to Stokenchurch climbs almost 150 metres from Piddington to the summit, with then a steep drop back down Aston Hill. This route from Wycombe to Stokenchurch is shown on one of John Ogilvey’s 1675 strip route maps, which describes it as part of the route from London all the way to Aberystwyth through Piddington. Stokenchurch Piddington Topographic map of the Chilterns Three different historical routes have been made up the steep hillside just west from Piddington :- 1. There is strong evidence to believe that a Roman road passed through the site of Piddington ( see Occupation section below), then took a curving uphill route which is now a wide deep hollow-way, following the edge of Fillingdon Woods north-west, then turns south-west, which reduces the slope of the road. This hollow-way is seen clearly on the Lidar survey recorded for the “Beacons of the Past” project. The route then carried on straight to Studley Green and onto Stokenchurch. There seems to be no obvious modern name for this hollow-way part of the route, except “footpath PWE/28/1”. Possible Roman road shown in orange. From Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal. Hollow-way OS map and Lidar image showing local relief, which highlights the hollow-ways. The yellow circle is the Fillington Wood medieval and Roman settlement, see below. Lidar image copyright Beacons of the Past/Chilterns Conservation Board. Hollow-way Lidar image showing local relief, which highlights the hollow-ways. The yellow circle is the Fillington Wood medieval and Roman settlement, see below. Lidar image copyright Beacons of the Past/Chilterns Conservation Board. The hollow-way is clearly shown on the 1770 Jeffery map of Buckinghamshire, as the main route from London to Oxford, taking a big bend north-west of Ham Farm. The hollow-way has a much wider flat base than the typical v-shaped routes eroded by cattle, suggesting it was cut back to widen the road for vehicles. It now has some mature trees growing in the base which clearly show it has not been used for anything larger than walkers for some time. Hollow-way route NW from Piddington, the main route to Oxford until 1800. 2. Around 1800 a straight route, the Old Dashwood Hill was made from Piddington when the route was made into a turnpike, but this direction made the road slope very steep, around 1 in 10, so it was difficult for stagecoaches to climb and descend safely, so some may have still used the older curving route. The Lidar view shows that it was also slightly cut into the hillside for a short stretch, probably to help reduce the gradient slightly. A map from 1812 shows both of these routes as equally prominent, north-west of Piddington. Piddin -gton 1812 map, earliest draft for the Ordnance survey. British Library collection. The stagecoaches needed to borrow one or two extra horses from Ham Farm or the Dashwood to pull up the hill, then the horses were allowed to gallop back down to home on their own ! https://swop.org.uk/swop/swop.htm Search for Dashwood Hill and 1910 to see photos of the Old Dashwood Hill, the straight turnpike, seen from the Dashwood Arms. The modern route bears off slightly to the left and through a cutting. Even with motor transport, sometimes lorries had to take half their load up the hill, then the drivers put the load on the roadside and come back for the rest. Motor coaches would often make passengers walk down the hill because it was too dangerous to drive down on ice with a full load. 3. The A40 route was improved again in 1925 by making a deep cutting in the chalk with the help of the technology of the time - a steam powered shovel running on a narrow gauge railway and small goods trains to remove the spoil. At around the same time the A40 was straightened past Piddington creating a green between the hamlet and road, reducing the nuisance from the traffic. Piddington is in the background of some of these photos. https://swop.org.uk/swop/swop.htm Search for A40 and diversion to find photos of the steam-powered digger and miniature trains. 4. We might then bring this story right up to date by mentioning the M40, passing a mile south of Piddington and almost through Stokenchurch, with a massive and controversial chalk cutting made in 1987 to flatten the slope of the route across the crest of the Chilterns. The M40 has finally taken most of the cross-country traffic away from Piddington and the A40. Even in 1681 the traffic was busy on this route; the Earl of Shaftsbury saw 14 coaches all heading down the hill west from Stokenchurch together. https://swop.org.uk/swop/swop.htm search for Fillingdon Farm and Dashwood Hill to see how the traffic has increased on this road. In 1946, a family are enjoying a picnic on the roadside, but the photo of the same spot only 21 years later in 1967 shows that a picnic would be a deafening experience. Piddington is in the background of these photos. All the efforts made to make the A40 straighter and flatter have only encouraged drivers to go faster, so a search for Piddington in the SWOP photo database, “Sharing Wycombe old photographs” has many pictures of serious road accidents, which unfortunately still happen around here today. Occupation Numerous Roman metal objects have been found in the fields immediately west and east of Piddington, suggesting this was the course of a Roman road. On the map, the green spots are Roman finds, the green line is the possible Roman road, and the green squares are Archaeological Notification Areas, due to the many Roman finds here. Roman finds (circles), the suggested Roman road ( green line) , and Archaeological notification areas for Roman remains (squares). From Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal. Roman pottery shards were also found as the lowest layer in a fascinating site right on the Old Dashwood Hill route, called the “Medieval Settlement site at Fillington Wood”, approx. 1 mile NW of Piddington, the yellow circle on the Lidar map, the third picture in this note. The large size of the shards suggests a Roman settlement, not just accidental scatter. This site was used again in the 12th/13th century, judging by the large number of pottery finds of this age, so it is assumed this is also the age of the impressive 60 metre-wide enclosure formed by a ditch, which can still be seen clearly today, before the undergrowth comes up each summer. (The Old Dashwood Hill road was unfortunately cut right through the enclosure.). Fillington Wood enclosure, and finds within, cut by the Old Dashwood Hill turnpike. See sources below Several possible buildings were found inside this enclosure, including a kitchen area. There was also a stone dovecot 3 metres across nearby, showing it was a high-status settlement. Two skeletons and two other skulls were also found on the site ! They were about 8 metres deep in a well. The archaeologists were even able to identify people who lived here, from a document of around 1300, the tenant was “Walter of Silindene” ( Filindene ), one of his villeins or labourers was Henry of Filindene. Walter paid an annual rent of 5s 6d ( 27 1/2p ) for two virgates (strips adding up to 20 acres). The site may have been abandoned due to the Black Death. The various large farmhouses around Piddington are generally old, and listed buildings :- Ham Farm and Bullocks Farm 17th Century, Lower Farm Cottage late 18th Century, Fillingdon Farm from early 18th century. Piddington takes its name from Piddington Lane. The farm off this lane was only called Piddington Farm after 1901, it used to be called Upper Style Farm. It recently changed name again to Oakridge Farm. The Dashwood Arms public house is on the census returns from 1841, ideally placed at the road junction with Chipps Hill road running to the south, and the junction of the two old routes to the west. In 1841 it was called the Dashwood Arms, but in 1851 it was called Ham public house ( it is across the road from Ham farm), in 1861 it is just a public house, and in 1881 was called The Ham, Dashwood Arms. Final thoughts This is being written in 2020, another historic year which will be remembered for the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. When we first moved to Piddington it seemed quite remote from people and places to visit. But when we were only allowed to walk out for one hour a day in lockdown, it was a great location to explore the local footpaths and all this history right on our doorstep.