74 Plant-life of the Oxford District 



another, foot-paths between adjacent farms and cottages, or bridle-paths through 

 the woodland. The latter leave no trace ; though several roads around Oxford 

 suggestively link older cottage-sites, as they follow the course of the same 

 subterranean stream supplying the wells. 1 



Cattle-tracks, broadened 30-40 ft., and trampled by the passage of herds 

 and rounded flocks of sheep, mark the main routes to local markets, as indicated 

 by the ford which gives its name to the town. Probably the first foot-tracks 

 followed the sides of the streams, as fisherman's paths of to-day, and along the 

 margin of the winter-flood, thus linking up the flood-line villages, and following 

 on to the gravel-patches available for crossing. 2 



Old roads across country were grassy rides in the waste and woodland, 

 in which, as in the case of pasture-land, the regeneration of trees was pre- 

 vented, bramble and bracken cut out, as in the present rides through woodland 

 (Bagley). These were not separated from the open country by hedges. In 

 swampy levels attempts at a firm bottom were made by putting down rough 

 wood-faggots (the beginning of a ' corduroy ' road) ; or in worse spots by 

 loads of rough rag-stone, as dug or quarried. As this material sank in the 

 mire, more was added, as in the construction of more modern lines of road 

 without special foundation. Deep ruts were neatly filled with rag-rubble. 

 Similar roads in all stages of evolution persist to the present day as farm- 

 tracks: many local farms still have no other approach, and are far from 

 any main road. 3 Such farm-roads in the present amenities of the countryside 

 are increasingly labelled ' private '. The width of these older ways was 

 established when hedges became general in the seventeenth century, at a 

 generous range of 30-40 ft. Main roads with greater traffic are 50-60 ft., 

 and the thorn hedges in more modern times may be continued in the actual 

 fence of houses and gardens along the route. Local encroachments on such 

 roads, by ingeniously removing one fence and cultivating up to the other, 

 reduce such ways to field cart-tracks, or foot-paths with a general right-of-way. 

 In such case, a quite reasonable notice to avoid standing crops soon becomes 

 a warning to all trespassers '. A ' foot-path ' should be wide enough for two 

 men to pass when both loaded with tools or produce, without being obliged 

 to stop and put things down ; such paths may be fenced to 6-8 ft. ; a 4-foot 

 way is a nuisance. 



At a later date minor commercial transport was effected by pack-horses. 

 All heavy traffic came up the river by barge from Henley, to the early nineteenth 

 century, and the river was improved for navigation, and locked to Oxford (1635) 

 long before roads were taken in hand seriously.* Clay was the terror of all 

 older roads, and in clay-areas deep ruts would be cut by heavy traffic, as in 

 shifting timber-trees. 5 Pack-horse tracks rise in a straight line, over the gravels 

 and sands of the nearest hills, to their destination ; as over Shotover on the 

 London Road, over Wytham Hill to Eynsham, and straight up Ferry Hinksey 



1 Kennington Lane, Road from Littlemore to Garsington, Boar's Hill. 



2 Remains of such paths are seen in the present road from Wytham to Botley, and thence to 

 Ferry Hinksey, continued as a foot-path to S. Hinksey, and then again to Kennington Lane. 

 Remains of a similar flood-path on the Iffley side are seen in Meadow Lane, now cut off by Playing 

 Fields from the approach to Magdalen Bridge. 



3 Sescut, Chilswell, Minchery, Blackbird Leys Farms. The present state of the ' Roman Road' 

 and especially the diverticulum to Brasenose Farm, admirably illustrate these older grassy roads, now 

 confined within hedges. These require to be seen in wet winter weather. ' Mud Lane ', Cowley, is 

 a suggestive relic ; now a back-way continued as an old foot-path over the Golf-course. The 

 ' Plain ' of Shotover remains as a part of the Old London Route, broadened at the top to 75 yds., as 

 if for grazing purposes or camping. Excellent relics of such ways are seen in ' Copse Lane ' and 

 1 Marsh Lane ', Marston, as sections of an older road to Elsfield. A neglected section of ' Copse 

 Lane ' under trees, in wet weather, still affords a vivid idea of Oxford clay mire as trodden by cattle. 



4 The River-road is interesting because it implies a tow-path and a right of way along one side 

 of the river at least ; opening this region up to the observer as it passes through pasture-fields of the 

 alluvium, not otherwise readily accessible ; though arable fields are more usually separated from the 

 track by a hedge : cf. Meadows of Yarnton, Oxey Mead, Wytham, Binsey fields, Medley fields, 

 Iffley Fields. 



6 A clean-cut rut in Bagley Wood (1922) on Kimeridge clay was 12 in. deep in the groove of 

 older ruts, or 16-18 inches below the level of the centre of the track. 



