About ½ mile further on, in a plantation at Cherry
Tree Shaw, the causeway appears as a broad, raised mound. The road leaves
the county boundary a mile beyond and enters Surrey on the top of the hill
at Tatsfield Firs, Titsey. The alignment is picked up again ¾ mile to the
south-east, between Clacket and Church Woods where, for nearly a mile, it
follows the Titsey—Tatsfield parish boundary, and just beyond, in Thrift
Wood, the causeway is clear and rabbit burrows show the stony matrix. A
straight line across Cronklands and the High Chart in Limpsfield parish
would bring it into Kent again by Hurst Farm, near Crockham Hill, in
Westerham parish. From Westerham the line agrees with the modern road as
far as Stone Street (a significant name); here the modern road bends
slightly westward, but the alignment is again picked up north of Marlpit
Hill, and continues for about 2 miles through Edenbridge (the old name of
which is Stangrave18) to the point where the modern road forks.
The line then continues by Eden Park, across the stream at Broome Farm,
changes its direction to south-east ½ mile beyond Eden Hall, and passes
out of Kent at Kentwater, where it crosses the boundary on its way to
Sussex.
(6) THE PILGRIM’S WAY.19—It cannot be said to
what extent the Pilgrim’s Way was in use in Roman times. Roman remains
have only been found close to its course in the Medway valley, and as
these can be referred to settlements near by, the most that can be said is
that certain sections of the road seem to have been used. A hard surface,
said to be a Roman road, was found in 1927 under the Pilgrim’s Way near
Twitton, west of Otford.20 The section between Rochester,
Cuxton, Whorne’s Place, and Upper Hailing has burials along its course,
and it may be that this road served for traffic between Rochester and the
Snodland settlement via Upper Hailing and Holborough, and by keeping to
the slope of the hill avoided the low-lying marsh land that the more
direct riverside route would have encountered.
(7) THE MAIDSTONE—WESTERHAM R0AD.—The evidence for this
road is not at all well supported. Discoveries of remains along its line
have been made in the neighbourhood of Ightham, and for the rest we have
to depend on a reference to a street in a charter of 94521
granting lands at Mailing to Burhic, Bishop of Rochester. This street
may perhaps be identified with the road we are considering, but it is
equally likely to be the High Street of West Mailing, where a paved road
14 ft. in width and with a water channel in the centre was found 18 in.
below the surface.22 Finally, a Jutish burial found in a
sand-pit at Aylesford about ¼ mile off the line of the road may help to
establish its antiquity, but isolated discoveries are not of much use in
this way, and at present the matter must remain in suspense.
(8) DOUBTFUL ROMAN R0ADs.—In this paragraph it will be
convenient to mention several roads that may possibly be Roman, though
evidence of their age is at present lacking.
A road has been traced from the old ferry over the Thames
north of Higham, southward by Hoo Junction and Shorne Ridgeway to the
London road, and future study will probably extend our knowledge of its
exact route and importance.
18 Arch. Cant. xxi
109.
19 See Arch. Cant. xxxvii, 1—20, particularly p.
10.
20 Arch. Cant. xxxix, 158.
21 Cart. Saxon. vol. ii, 516, No. 779.
22 Arch. Cant. xxiii, 9, and
pottery has been found at St. Leonards Street, West Mailing (see Index).
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