Shipham to Tyning's Farm - 17 July 2018 >

          ( for Introduction/rationale, see 1st Blog `The North
               Somerset Roman Road Project`, pub.30.12.18 )

We ( Vince, Martyn, Bev) started at the toll house on the B3133 in Shipham and walked up Holloway Road following Tratman’s suggested course (Pic 1). The first part was fairly but not absolutely straight, but perhaps its directness had been affected by the front of the curtilage of the houses on either side. In places between the houses a probably very old hedge survived in which Vince counted I think about eight different species.

Pic 1. Holloway Road

 Pic.2  Lippiat Lane

Pic 3.  Martyn`s legs hidden by the hump

Beyond the houses the road straightened and roughened, and became Lypiatt Lane (Pic 2). Someway up on the left a gateway opening into a field presented an agger- like hump parallel to and immediately next to the road, rising gently from the road and falling away into the field (Pic 3). It was narrower than a proper agger but of course might have been truncated by the modern Lane.  This would mean the Roman road did not follow the lane exactly but the sinuosity of  subsequent routes often show departures from a strict direct line while maintaining an overall faithfulness to the outline of the Roman road. In the picture, Vince stands on top of the hump and Martyn on the far side in the lane, his feet obscured by the rise of the so-say agger.  

Pic 4. The downhill plunge

Pic 6. Large stones, possible foundation

Pic 5. Traces of shelf along the right of picture

At the top of Lippiat Lane, the line alters slightly to the right and plunges down a steep track for several hundred yards to the stream. In Vince’s opinion this gradient could be managed by a wagon drawn by probably 2 and certainly 4 draught animals (Pic 4). There were clear and and unsurprising signs of water flow down the track during wet weather, and so any surface would have long been washed away if not maintained. However two possible remnants of a road existed:

Firstly, some large stones embedded into the track, close together but not contiguous, might be a relict of the foundation core of the road.(Pic 6)

Secondly, a narrow stony shelf along the side of the track but a bit above its level as if it were the remains of original level, now swept away in most of the track‘s width (Pic 5). 

At the bottom of a fairly straight descent , the track curved left and then right in a zigzag and crossed at right angles the stream which Vince says can be a torrent in winter.

Pic 7. The streamside path

Pic 8. Forestry track

Following the line of the West Mendip Way, the path turns slightly to the north east and starts to ascend the hill obliquely through Rowberrow Forest towards Tyning’s Farm. At first along the stream it seems only a narrow path (Pic 7) but there were several indications on our left of a greater width before a sharp bank commences the ascent of the hill. It is as if the path had been a wider track previously that had been narrowed by vegetation encroachment. And indeed some way up the path it becomes a wide metalled forestry track (Pic 8).

We now left Tratman’s line to look at a different straight line to Shipham and the toll house, following a public right-of-way(picture above). The advantage of this line would be that it could join a route back east to Charterhouse without descending into the valley of the stream. However it proved to be only a narrow path and so unlikely to be a Roman road. It is just possible that being a shelf cut into the side of a hill, slump on the higher side might have buried part of its width but we saw no indication of this.

The first part of our walk from Shipham up towards Tynings farm seemed to Vince to be a very good candidate for a Roman road. A good day’s work.

The upper red line is the outward journey; the lower, the return

Vince can come out with us again in three weeks time on August 9 Tuesday.

Of course that doesn’t stop us making forays meanwhile.