To Buckingham with Ogilby

There's a stretch of road on the 1675 Ogilby road map route from London to Buckingham that deviates from anything we would think of as a main route today. The stretch I'm writing about runs from Quarrenden, North of Aylesbury, to Buckingham. It tells a story of Romans, drovers and bridges.

Section of John Ogilby's 1675 road map - London to Buckingham

I followed the route by bicycle, starting at point A on the Ogilby and Ordnance Survey map, which is the site of a Gypsy King's gravestone on the old Roman road known as Carter's Lane. Weather-beaten, with markings illegible, the stone marks the death of one Edward Bozwellin 1640, who was executed for horse-stealing. His last wish was to be buried in Carter’s Lane.

(A) The Gypsy King's gravestone

(A) The Gypsy King's gravestone

So why did Ogilby's route pass this way? The surveyors will have left Aylesbury for Quarrenden to pass over the River Tame at the stone bridge built there. They will have asked the locals about the best route to Buckingham who replied with the way they knew best - by the drovers' roads. The drovers sought out bridges and dry high ground wherever possible to get their cattle from Wales to London, via Banbury, Buckingham and Aylesbury. They will have followed established routes where possible too, and where more established than a clearly defined Roman road?

B

The unmetalled section of the Roman road, which continues through fields as a bridleway after leaving the rough tarmac of Carter's Lane. 

 C

There is evidence of the old raised agger of the Roman road even after centuries under the plough of the medieval ridge and furrow field systems.

 D
At ‘Dead Man’s Gate’ there was a huge elm, which blew down in the 1987 gales.  In its youth it had been a hanging tree.

E
The drovers' road is now a bridleway that picks up again after the short stretch on the metalled road.

F

The drovers would direct their cattle to crossing points at brooks and rivers. That this has been a crossing point for many years is shown by this crumbling old bridge. Now no-one is suggesting that this is an actual bridge used by drovers, it is nowhere old enough. However, it is a well made blue brick construction from early to middle of last century, and it is substantial enough to suggest that it might have replaced earlier constructions at an established bridging point on the old route to Buckingham.

G
A point of interest is where an old railway used to cross the route here. Its hard to believe these days, but this was once the northern extension of the London Metropolitan line, isolated and miles out of its comfort zone. The old railway track is followed for a short distance here by electricity pylons.

H

We enter here the village of East Claydon, down what at one time would have been its main road. Now it is a cul-de-sac that culminates in the bridleway and track to a farm.

I

The road beyond East Claydon, which follows the Ogilby and drovers' route, shows evidence of former importance by its width. Forget the modern narrow strip of tarmac and consider the distance from hedge to hedge. Those responsible for mapping out the field enclosures left a very wide trackway.

A section of Herman Moll's map of Buckinghamshire of 1724 showing the route from Aylesbury to Buckingham passing through East Claydon. Moll had depicted Ogilby's route.