BURTON, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 25 
old Winshill towards Newton Solney, or possibly across or 
round the hill on which now stands Winshill Church and 
down Mill Hill Lane. Again, the Newton Road cannot be 
considered an ancient highway. Mr. Molyneux tells us 
that in a plan made in 1760 the road from the bridge 
to the mills at Winshill was described as the Mill Way, 
and its continuation northwards to Newton consisted simply 
of a footpath or bridle road across the open fields. It 
would thus appear that the bridge would originally lead to 
no road on the Derbyshire side except the one to Stapenhill. 
I think that if any other probable line for the road from 
Ashby to Uttoxeter can be discovered we must dismiss the 
idea of its having passed through Burton and with that 
idea the contingent one of Burton having existed as a town 
before the foundation of the Abbey. I shall have to say a 
few words presently about one such line of road, but, before 
doing that, I should just like to remark that I do not wish 
in any way to dogmatise in this question for, in spite of the 
considerations I have presented to you, I really regard it 
as a somewhat open one. I will just allude, for what you 
may think them worth, to two other considerations which 
rather tend in the opposite direction—I mean in favour’ of 
the view of Burton really possessing a higher antiquity than 
A.D. 1002, the date of the foundation of the Abbey. The 
first of these is the question why, when Wulfric Spott 
founded his Abbey, should he have chosen a spot lonely 
and distant from any frequented line of traffic? Benedictine 
Abbeys in the 11th and 12th centuries were usually placed 
in large towns or their neighbourhood, unlike those of the 
Cistercians who came a little later, and who undoubtedly 
chose secluded spots for their settlements. At any rate, I 
am prepared to admit that the fact that Wulfric chose this 
for the site of a Benedictine Abbey justifies a conjecture 
that there was previously some considerable population, and 
affords encouragement to anyone so disposed to seek for 
