Icknield Street

A section of Icknield Street preserved in Sutton Park

Icknield Street or Ryknild Street is a Roman road in Britain that runs from the Fosse Way at Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire (51.888°N 1.767°W / 51.888; -1.767) to Templeborough in South Yorkshire (53.418°N 1.394°W / 53.418; -1.394). It passes through Alcester, Studley, Redditch, Metchley Fort, Birmingham, Lichfield and Derby.

The road was historically called Icknield Street but it acquired the name Ryknild Street during the 12th century when it was misnamed by Ranulf Higdon, a monk of Chester writing in 1344 in his Polychronicon. Harverfield writing in the Victoria County History of Warwickshire doubted whether the road had any real and original right to either name, preferring Ryknild as no less correct, (or no more incorrect) and being able to distinguish it from Icknield Street in Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It is now called Icknield or Ryknild Street to distinguish it from the older Icknield Way, an Iron Age trackway running from Norfolk to Dorset. A preserved section of the Roman road can be seen at Sutton Park in Birmingham.

Today's Route

Much of the route of the Icknield Street is used by modern roads, most notably the A38 from Lichfield to Derby; and many sections retain the name "Icknield Street", but not always accurately as in Hockley, Birmingham and in Redditch, Worcestershire where there is also a road called Icknield Street Drive' which stands near the course of the Roman road. [3] "Ryknild Street" is still in use in Lichfield and "Ryknild Road" in Derby.

Bourton-on-the-Water to Bidford-on-Avon

The road appears to have joined the Fosse Way near Bourton-on‑the‑Water. Starting about two miles north of there, and two miles west of Stow-on-the-Wold, a lane (Condicott Lane) runs northwards in a straight line to Condicote and then Hinchwick. This lane appears to indicate the course of Icknield Street. It leads towards high ground, about 840 feet (260 m) on Bourton Down. It is not clear how the ascent of 250 feet (76 m) from Hinchwick to the Down was made, but on the Down a lane northwards from Springhill takes nearly the same line for 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to near the Evesham road 950 feet (290 m), from which a parish boundary over Saintbury Hill seems to mark the course down the north side. On the west side of Weston Park, a line seems to be taken up lying between high ground 940 feet (290 m), 2 miles (3.2 km) to the south, and Alcester, 12 miles (19 km) to the north. A road in this line, passing on the west of Weston-sub‑Edge, leads on to a highway with a parish boundary along it called Riknild or Icknield Street, which is crossed by the railway at Honeybourne Station. It continues northward under the name of Buckle Street to Staple Hill, one mile south of Bidford-on-Avon. This is probably the oldest version of the name being the modern form of a name Bucgan or Buggilde Street which appears in documents earlier than the Norman Conquest. As the road approaches Bidford there is a slight turn, and the modern road heads for the crossing point of the medieval bridge whereas the Roman ford is upstream of here and the road name preserved in a small road named Icknield Street on the northern bank. Evidence of a Roman causeway here confirms this as the Roman crossing point.

Bidford-on-Avon to Birmingham

From Bidford following the named Icknield Street the line of the road ten follows Waterloo Street through Bidford and then across country as the B4085. At Wixford by the Three Horse Shoes Inn the modern road turns west whilst the line of the road continues north in a hollow way to Saint Milburga's church where it becomes a track running along the ridge to the east of Ragley Hall heading towards Alcester. At Alcester the original crossing point has been lost due to changes in the course of the river and the development of the town but the line is recovered north of the town on the modern A435. Passing Coughton Court the road bears the local name of Headon or Haydon Way and proceeds though Studley and to one mile beyond, where the modern road turns off to the north-eastward. Heading north much of the route is lost, since Codrington wrote, in the development of Redditch, however Icknield Street Drive, Battens Drive approximates the route until a small road through the residential area of Churchill marked Ryknield Street on the modern 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey map, exactly in a line with Haydon Way, is reached. This line appears to point from Alcester to high ground about 480 feet (150 m), one mile east of Rowney Green, and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Beoley. Now the B4497 the road heads north through Beoley crossing over the M42 motorway just south of Alcott Farm. It retains the name Icknield Street, climbing the high ground of Swans Hill between the Coach and Horses Public House at Weatheroak and the Peacock Inn at the junction with Lea End Lane. Here, a hedge line and footpath run directly up the hill while the modern road deviates slightly to the east to accommodate the incline before rejoining the original route and continuing north until it enters the suburbs of Birmingham at Kings Norton. It then follows the course of Walkers Heath Road over the traffic roundabout at Parsons Hill, to Broadmeadow Lane, Lifford Lane, Pershore Road and Hazelwell Street, finally disappearing into residential developments at Stirchley by the swimming baths.

Across Birmingham

The 7 miles from Stirchley in the south of Birmingham to Perry Bridge at Holford in the north is a serious problem. It has long vexed Birmingham antiquaries and is perhaps insoluble. Hutton gave the course as "onwards by Stirchley Street, crossing the Bromsgrove road at Selly Oak, leaving Harborne a mile to the west, by the observatory in Lady Wood Lane, crossing the Dudley Road at Sandpits, and along Worstone Lane, passing five furlongs north of the Navigation Bridge in Great Charles Street, Birmingham. He saw the section of the road where the inhabitants attempted to pull it up for the sake of the materials, 20 yards wide, and one yard deep, filled up with stone cemented with coarse mortar," and he says that "the course was discoverable by its barren track through uncultivated meadows." Icknield Street or Icknield Port Road are not old names and cannot be traced in the city prior to 1825 and may have been introduced as a result of Hutton's theory. Birmingham and its suburbs now cover the old road. The line of Hazelwell Street sets the course of the road towards the next established point of the route at Metchley Fort in the grounds of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The fort was established about AD 48 by the Roman army as a base camp for its conquest of the Birmingham area and part of a network of forts across the Midlands linked by roads. It stood by Birmingham's earliest known road junction at the point where Icknield Street was met by Roman roads coming in from Droitwich and Penkridge. From here the road runs north to another fort at Wall, Roman Etocetum near Lichfield. The Perry Bridge of 1711 stands at its crossing of the River Tame in Perry Barr.

Lichfield to Derby

The street enters Derby from the south east. From here to the countryside north of Derby, the route has not been determined. In the norther outskirts of modern Derby the road passed close to a Roman fort, occupied in the 50 AD, at Strutts Park. This structure was replaced around AD 80 by the fort,Derventio at Chester Green on the other side of the River Derwent, the street may have passed closer to this new fort. It is certain that a road left Derventio to the east and led to Sawley on the River Trent.

See also

• Roman Britain
• Roman roads in Britain

External links

• Birmingham Roman Roads Project (Hosted by the University of Birmingham)
• Metchley Fort, Birmingham
• Derby City Council list of Scheduled Ancient Monuments
• Full text of Roman Roads in Britain, Thomas Codrington
• An History of Birmingham (1783) by William Hutton at Project Gutenberg