ROMANO-BRITISH WORCESTERSHIRE 



have no concern with it. But antiquaries of the twelfth and following 

 centuries, Henry of Huntingdon (p. 204), Ranulf Higden of Chester and 

 others, got hold of the name and made use of it, obviously without 

 knowing exactly what it meant. Hence one of them said that Icknield 

 Street ran from east to west — which is the truth, somewhat exaggerated 

 — and another that it ran from north to south. The views of the anti- 

 quaries spread, and two Icknield Streets arose into use as names, the one 

 for the real Berkshire and Oxfordshire street somewhat extended, and 

 the other for the road which we have been describing from Derby to 

 Wall, Alcester and the Foss Way. Hence we meet, in a deed dating from 

 Henry III., a Henry de Ikenyld Street, and in another deed, dating from 

 Henry "VIII., an Ikneld Street, both at or near Alvechurch, close to 

 which our road runs.^ 



Now it is precisely this intrusion of Icknield Street into the west 

 that is in all probability responsible for the name Rycknield Street. 

 For the conjecture of old Thorpe is by no means unlikely, that Ryck- 

 nield is merely a misreading of Icknield, spelt as it sometimes is with 

 a prefixed H. The name Rycknield does not appear in any form 

 till the fourteenth century, while Icknield Street, as we have just seen, 

 is attested near Alvechurch in the thirteenth century. The first mention 

 of Rycknield seems to be in the works of Ranulf Higden of Chester, 

 who, like most medieval chroniclers, mentions the ' four great roads ' of 

 Britain. These roads are, he says, the Foss Way, Watling Street, 

 Ermine Street and ' Rykeneld Strete ' ; and it will be noticed that 

 ' Rykeneld Strete ' here occupies the place which is given to Icknield 

 Street by all Higden's predecessors, and indeed by very many subsequent 

 writers. It is difficult not to suppose that Rykeneld is not a mere 

 clerical misreading of Hikeneld, that is Icknield. But the matter does 

 not altogether end here. Higden describes the course of ' Rykeneld 

 Strete ' as running from Mavonia (St. David's) through Worcester, 

 Wich (that is Droitwich) and Birmingham to Lichfield, Derby and 

 beyond. Whether he knew anything of the route which we have 

 noticed as No. i in our list must remain doubtful, and does not much 

 matter : his remarks were interpreted to refer to the road which we 

 have described, and which before him was called Icknield, the road 

 which runs through Alcester. Gradually, as the medieval writers 

 became more clear and critical, they recognized the inconsistency of two 

 Icknield Streets, one of which was apparently Rycknield also, and they 

 called the Worcestershire road Rycknield Street alone, though traces of 

 the other name survived in some abundance in local names and deeds. 

 And later writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, influenced 

 by Higden in another way, tried to trace Rycknield Street turning to- 

 wards Wales. Somewhat perversely neglecting the Worcester and 

 Droitwich road (No. i above), they imagined various other routes. 

 Such is, for instance, a road turning off from the real Roman road at 

 Bidford and running south-west along the terrace of Cleeve Hill, for 



1 Allies, pp. 332. 339- 

 215 



