Icknield Way Path
The Icknield Way Path is a long-distance footpath 110 miles long running through six counties from the Chilterns into East Anglia. and following or shadowing the ancient Icknield Way. The Icknield Way claims to be ‘the oldest road in Britain’, consisting of prehistoric pathways, ancient when the Romans came. The waymarkers for the Icknield Way Path therefore depict a stone-age axe.
Parallel to the Icknield Way Path and sharing much of its route is the 'Icknield Way Trail', a cycling route.
The trailheads of the Path are:
The route is dotted with archaeological remains. It survives today in splendid tracks and green lanes along the ‘chalk spine’ of the south-eastern counties.
The counties through which it runs (and between which in places it forms the border) are:
The route
The Icknield Way Path starts at the end of the Ridgeway path, on Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire, and finishes to the start of the Peddars Way at Knettishall Heath in the north of Suffolk. The Icknield Way Association has aimed to find the most pleasant route for walking, as close as possible to the general line of the ancient Icknield Way.
The Path connects with: Angles Way, Bunyan Trail, Chiltern Way, Harcamlow Way, Hertfordshire Border Walk, Hertfordshire Chain Walk, Hertfordshire Way, Peddars Way, Ridgeway, Stour Valley Path and Swan's Way.
History
The path was devised by the Icknield Way Association and supported by the Ramblers Association. It was part of a plan to achieve National Trail status for the whole length of the ancient trackways linking the south coast and The Wash. The path was recognised by local authorities in 1992. The association was founded by Charles Thurstan Shaw, archaeologist and long-distance walker, in 1984, the same year he produced the first walker’s guide to the route.[1][2]
In 2004 the Icknield Way Path was further developed as a multi-use route so that most of the route is also available for horse riders and off-road cyclists providing a complete walking and riding link between the two National Trails. From this came the Icknield Way Trail, extending the route to 170 miles from near Chinnor in Oxfordshire and finishing also at Knettishall Heath, to meet the Peddars Way National Trail that heads north into Norfolk.
Commencing at Ivinghoe Beacon, places on the route of the Icknield Way Path include:
- and finishing at Knettishall Heath
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Icknield Way Path) |
References
- ↑ (31 March 2013). Professor Thurstan Shaw - Obituary. The Daily Telegraph.
- ↑ CANTAB RAMBLER73 April 2013 - Thurstan Shaw, 1914 – 2013. cambridgeramblers.org