An Early Norfolk Trackway: the " Drove " Road

427 v three "dos rabattu" knives; half-a-dozen hand axes of varying excellence, a neatly worked implement 2^-in. by lg-in. by j-in. thick, chipped on both sides with edge all raund and semi-circular ends, thick white patina, resembling a small celt of Cissbury type; a " tea cosy " with good flat base; two well chipped imple- ments very similar in shape to the " rac/oir" of Le Moustier, but worked on both sides; five leaf-shaped points, probably arrow- heads, three perfect, all patinated white or bluish white, probably belonging to a very early culture. Lastly, an additional 48 scrapers, making 112 in all, chiefly round, but a few showing cave tendencies. I consider this a most prolific site, and by no means exhausted. It must have been occupied for a considerable period, as I have found more than 30 hammer-stones. AN EARLY NORFOLK TRACKWAY: THE " DROVE " ROAD. BY W. G. CLARKE AND H. DIXON HEWITT, F.I.C. Read at Norwich, January 26th, 1914. It is difficult to prove that a road is prehistoric—in many cases more difficult to prove that it is not—-but the fourteen . miles of the Norfolk " Drove," " Droveway," or" Harling Drove," which connects the fenland at Blackdike,. Hockwold, with Peddar's Way on Roudham Heath, have certain claims to: that distinction. rl hough not so well known as'the Northumberland "Drove Way" or the Surrey "Drove. Road," and probably a. favourite route in mediaeval times for flocks and herds to and from the fens, its origin must be sought in a much more remote period, and as for the greater part of its course its primitive condition is still retained, it is easy—possibly with the mental elimination of all trees from the landscape—to picture it as it was in its early days. FROM END TO END. The direction of the "Drove" is East and West, and its- termini are in the same latitude, though in order to reach Fowlmere it takes a long northern sweep from Bromehill, and at New Buildings, Croxton, is a mile to the northward of a straight line connecting its ends. At Blackdike it isr13 feet above O.D., rising to 62 feet north-west of Fengate Farm, and falling to- 23 feet at the western foot of Bromehill. The top of the hill is 105 feet above O.D., and the bottom of the eastern slope 46-7 feet. The Drove then ascends to 124 feet at Santon Square, 129 feet on West Tofts Heath, 143 feet midway between New Buildings and Fowlmere, and 140 feet in the middle of Thorpe Great Heath, whence it gradually falls to 92 feet at its junction with Peddar's. Way. 428 The exact western termination of the "Drove" is uncertain, the continuation of its course from Hockwold taking it along the "skirt lands" to Blackdike, and it then degenerates into a fen drove, which, until comparatively recent times, was probably under water a good part of the year. Close by the road, in the grounds of Hockwold Hall, is the base of a mediaeval cross, and little more than half-a-mile distant in the adjoining village of Wilton is another stone cross, 15-ft. in height, rising from a pedestal 4-ft. in height. In Wilton the " Drove " forms the main street, and from Blackdike to Weeting is now an ordinary metalled road. A mile east of Wilton the road passes through the "Devil's Dyke," "The Fo"S," or "Fen Dyke," a ditch and rampart—the ditch mainly on the west, though in places much more pronounced on the east—connecting the marshland of the river Little Ouse with that of the river Wissey, and said by tradition to have been formed by the devil trailing one leg on the ground, the huge Castle Hill at Thetford being the scraping from his boot. This dyke forms the western boundary of Weeting and Cranwich, and the eastern of Wilton, Feltwell, Methwold, and Northwold. From the edge of the Wissey marshland, the bank is complete for five miles, the "Drove" cutting through it little more than half-a- mile from its southern end. It is chiefly made of chalk, and in many parts the ditch has been filled with'blowing sand. Its average height is about 6-ft. and width from 15 to 20-ft. Where the " Drove " cuts through the Fen Dyke there is a slight elevation in the road, which may have marked the temporary closing of the gap in the rampart at some early period. It is noteworthy that in Cambridgeshire the Icknield Way passes through five similar dykes, which all have their strongest faces to the west, and excavations have proved that the way is older than the earth- works. All the evidence is in favour of the assumption that these " dykes " are prehistoric, probably dating from the Bronze Age. At the entrance to Weeting village (Fig. 10) the metalled road turns northward on what was evidently the original Methwold road, branching from the '; Drove," and the course of the latter is indicated by a footpath alongside a hedge. When the field is fallow, faint indications of the old road-bank may still be seen some yards in the field. At the east end of this field a building has been erected on the " Drove " and the path has been diverted. In Donald & Milne's map of Norfolk (1797) the road is continued straight through to the Brandon-Methwold road, as it is also in Laurie and Whittle's map (1811), but in Major Colby's Ordnance Map (1824) this had been altered to present conditions. Here the " Drove " again becomes a narrow metalled road, the way to the northward having originally been the junction with the " Drove " of the " Pilgrim's Walk " or " Walsingham Way," which is still a well-preserved trackway in the fields north of Weeting Park, and on Mount Ephraim passes close by two fine barrows and the base of a mediaeval cross. In Weeting the " Drove " passes over a small tributary of the 430 Little Ouse, the only water crossed in its course, then over the present Brandon-Methwold road, between which and the Brandon- Mundford road a large barrow known as " Pepper Hill" stands close by the road. It is 10 to 12 ft. in height and about 100 yds. in circumference at the base. A little further the metalled portion of:the "Drove" ends, and for the remaining nine miles of its course it is merely a deeply rutted trackway in turf or sand, giving vistas of miles of heather;arid bracken, straggling "belts'" of larch, beech or pine, or of stone-covered " brecks." For a mile the trackway climbs the western slope of Bromehill, at the foot of which is Brorriehill Priory, from 1224 to 1870 associated with one of the most famous fairs of the countryside. On the eastern slope of Bromehill the " Drove " descends through a plantation which furnishes the prettiest scenes on its course. On the hill-top the road is on a broad terrace which slopes abruptly to the "breck" below. Prom the foot of the hill, " Grime's Graves " are a mile to:the northward, and between them and the Little Ouse, and cut b-y the " Drove," is a series of banks, at one place five in number, and parallel to each other, which mark the boundary between Weeting and Santon, and not improbably the road from the " Grime's Graves " settlement to the river. This is the only point at which the " Drove " approaches the river Little Ouse, and there is abundant evidence that it was the site of several successive settlements. Across Santon Breck and Santon Square the "Drove" is a sandy trackway in a region of extreme desolation, and it is here and there bounded by earthen banks of uncertain age. It crosses the highway from Thetford to Mundford about 4 miles from the former town, and enters the even more desolate region of West Tofts Heath, where it is prob- able that the way still retains much of its primeval aspect. In the early maps of Norfolk there is great variation in the roads between Bromehill and West Tofts Heath, but in the Ordnance Survey Map of 1824 the course of the "Drove" is shown as it is at present. The ancient boundary banks are well preserved, paced measurements giving the distance from bank to bank as 16 paces and, from ridge to ridge 20 paces. Entering Croxton parish the " Drove " would be lost amidst the heather but for the big bank on each side. Proof of the antiquity of the " Drove " is provided by the highway from Stanford, which runs into the " Drove" and turns almost at right angles for about 50 yards before its junction with the Thetford-Watton highway. Had the latter been the older it seems certain that on open heathland the Stanford road would have run directly into it, and so avoided an awkward angle. A similar proof of antiquity is furnished by Peddar's Way on the Rushford-Riddlesworth boundary (Fig 10). From "New Buildings," where the "Drove" crosses the Thetford-Watton road, for half-a-mile it is bordered on the north by a high hedge, the only one on its heathland course, the adjacent fields all having the Norse " Grimmer " in their names— " Grimmer's Breck," etc. A little to the south of the track is a 431 fine barrow known as " Mickle Hill," close to which a few years ago was found a Teutonic bronze mount of the fourth century A.D.

Load more