44 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[February 1, 1899. 



Ick (Coulton). Numerous Roman remains have here been 

 found in Kampart Field, where earthworks formerly 

 guarded the ford of the Lark. There are several tumuli 

 near the Way, between Newmarket and Thetford, and 

 both Paleolithic and Neolithic flint implements have been 

 found in abundance. " Old Elveden Gap " was so called 

 to distinguish it from its newer companion on the turnpike 

 road. These gaps were, originally, cuttings through the 

 forest. The Icknield Way crossed the present road between 

 Barnham and Elveden, at a spot known as Marmansgrave, 

 where it may yet be seen in all its pristine glory — although 

 rarely used. A suicide was here interred, showing that at 

 one time the four cross ways were of equal renown, although 

 there are more typical ones in the parish now. This road 

 was used less than one hundred years ago for driving 

 cattle to the London market. 



From Marmansgrave (Elveden), Suffolk, to Larlingford, 

 Norfolk, the course of the Icknield Way is not so clear. 

 Some of the banking may yet be seen at the rear of Thet- 

 ford Cemetery. The Icknield Way crossed the high road 

 between Bury St. Edmunds and Thetford, a few yards 

 north of Thetford Gasworks. In one of Gall & Inglis' 

 recent maps of Suffolk this road is shown, and up to a short 

 time ago its course could be accurately traced. It is well 

 marked in a map of 1749. In the field where the gas- 

 works are situate, remains of a populous British settlement 

 were found in 1870, including pottery, bone awls, stone 

 and bone amulets and remains of habitations. Similar 

 remains have been found in a field on the opposite 

 side of the road, also crossed by the Icknield Way. Three 

 roads still remain at " Chunk Harvey's Grave," where 

 another excommunicate was buried, and the Icknield Way 

 formed the fourth. This obliterated trackway is stUl 

 supposed to form the boundary between the hundreds of 

 Blackbourn and Lackford. A short distance further 

 the road turns abruptly at right angles over the river Little 

 Ouse, a most pronounced characteristic of British track- 



The derivation, however, is by no means certain. If the 

 terminal be taken as the Anglo-Saxon ford, it undoubtedly 



Fig. 1.—" Chunk Harrey's Grave," Thetford. The Icknield Way 



ran from (a) to (b). 



ways. This was in most cases to find an easier passage. 

 Within a hundred yards the road crosses the Little Ouse, 

 a rivulet, and then the Thet, the bridges being termed the 

 " Nuns' Bridges." Blomefield describes the Castle Hill, 

 Thetford, as being " close by that ford or most frequented 

 passage over the river, from whence the city had its name." 



Fig. 2.— Bridge over the That at Thetford. 

 ford of the Icknield Wav. 



Anciently the 



refers to this one. It is possible, though not probable, 

 that the terminal is the Celtic rf'ord, a road or trackway, 

 relating to its position on the Icknield Way, as in ancient 

 documents the place-name not infrequently occurs as 

 Theflbrd. The prefix may be from the word Theod, a 

 contraction of some personal name as Theodosius (Coulton). 

 The most probable derivation seems to be from the Anglo- 

 Saxon, Theote, a broken stream. In that case, Thetford 

 would mean "the ford of the broken stream." In the 

 Autobiography of Roger North, Attorney-General to 

 James II. (" Lives of the Norths," Vol. III., pp. 10 and 11), 

 he says: "There was a navigable river in the town 

 (Thetford) which, above the bridge, branched into many 

 brooks and scattered streams." 



It is remarkable that not until 1697, or two years after 

 the presumed construction of the highway between Thet- 

 ford and Newmarket, is the erection of the Town Bridge, 

 Thetford, by which the present highway crosses the river, 

 mentioned. Reference to the repair of the Nuns' Bridges 

 occurs in 1539, in a deed between the Prior of the Monas- 

 tery of Our Ladye of Thetford, and Richard Cockerell, 

 Mayor of the borough. Mention is also made of land 

 abutting on " Lackefordeweye," which must necessarily 

 have been the road through Icklingham. 



From the River Thet, the logical and undoubtedly 

 correct continuation of the Icknield Way is by the Castle 

 Lane and Green Lane, Thetford. In the former, the 

 road passed close by, if not through, the boundaries of 

 the wonderful British earthworks known as Thetford 

 Castle Hill, which Mr. Mark Knights, in " Peeps at the 

 Past," termed the " most remarkable artificial earthwork 

 in East Anglia." At the southern end of Green Lane, 

 there were found in 1870, in a field adjoining the Icknield 

 Way, Roman and Celtic pottery, an unground axe, and 

 various implements of flint. Eight of Thetford's mediaeval 

 churches — of which three at least were Saxon — abutted 

 on this portion of the Icknield Way, and several monastic 

 establishments were in close proximity. Up to the 

 beginning of the present century one of the streets 

 uniting with the Icknield Way was termed Heathenman 



