qf Cambridgeshire 



it is said to be represented in certain green tracts now lost 

 in the fields in the neighbourhood of the "King's Hedges 1 " 

 and the village of Histon. Roman coins have been found 

 along this part of the road, which has been traced via 

 Denny Abbey to Ely, Littleport, Denver, and Brancaster. 

 Along the latter part of its course, not only coins, but bronze 

 vessels, shields, copper mirrors, fibulae and beads have been 

 found. In the opposite direction, the road is believed to have 

 traversed the land on the western side of the Grange Road, 

 and to have entered the Barton Road, passing near Comberton, 

 where a Roman villa was discovered in 1842, to Orwell, cross- 

 ing the Ermine Street near Wimpole, and so to Ampthill in 

 Bedfordshire. 



The two foregoing roads actually passed through the 

 ancient settlement of Cambridge. We now turn to routes 

 which are recognisable in other parts of the county. 



The Icknield Way. The name is associated with that of 

 the Iceni or Eceni, the predominant clan in this locality, at 

 the time of the Roman invasion. If one traverses either the 

 modern Hills Road over the Gogmagog hills, or follows the 

 line of the Worsted Street over the same range, one meets at 

 a distance of about six miles out from Cambridge, a great road, 

 now fringed with telegraph poles, and leading from south-west 

 to north-east towards Newmarket. Traceable from Royston 

 to Norwich, it provided an access from the south and south- 

 west to the eastern counties, only passing south of the fen- 

 lands round Cambridge, just as the Akerman Street passed to 

 the northern side. The line of chalk hills traversed by the 

 Icknield Way provided a safe and commodious route which 

 avoided equally these fens on the north and the impenetrable 

 forests (now destroyed) on the south. Besides the Roman 

 antiquities (cinerary vessels and coin at Five Barrow Field 



1 Not far from site of an ancient camp: possibly Koman, or possibly 

 used by William the Conqueror during his operations against Ely. But 

 of the origin of the name "King's Hedges" nothing is known, nor is 

 anything remarkable now visible on the spot. 



