70 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1907 
ON A ROMAN ROAD IN CHELTENHAM 
BY 
JOHN SAWYER 
(Plate VII.) 
The ancient camps on Cleeve Hill and Leckhampton are 
divided by a deeply-indented bay, and intercommunication 
along the Cotteswold escarpment would involve ‘a semi- 
circular journey through Andoversford. ‘There is, how- 
ever, an ancient trackway between the two across the 
intervening plain. On the slope of Leckhampton Hill is 
“Sandy Lane,” a lane now almost disused, but which in 
the seventeenth century, and probably for long before, was 
a high-road out of Cheltenham towards London. It is 
improbable that the lane obtained its name from any sandy 
soil, for sand is absent. The original name was probably 
““Sarn-way,” 2.€., a paved way, of which there are indica- 
tions ; for this is a corruption by no means uncommon. 
The name “Sandford” probably indicates where the 
“ Sarnway” crossed the Chelt, for, like Sandy-lane, “ sand” 
in Sandford is most likely a corruption of “ sarn,” a pave- 
ment; and, indeed at the point where the river was 
crossed by a ford, there are paving-stones to this day. 
The road on the Hewletts is still in use, and from time 
to time is re-metalled. Heavy rains some time ago washed 
away a great deal of the surface-material and exposed 
several patches of stone-paving (Pl. VII.) This consists 
of stones worked and closely set, and in places deeply 
srooved by the passage of wheels. It is a little less than 
eight English feet wide, which is equivalent to eight 
Roman feet, and is the same width as the paving in the 
Roman road along the southern edge of the Forest of 
Dean. 
