Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION NINE.
SOCIAL HISTORY.
I. ROADS: ANCIENT AND MODERN.

 From the South into the North takith Erminge Strete,
From the Est into the West goth Ikeneklc Strete,
From South-Est to North-West, that is Su'mdel Strete,
From Dover into Chestre goth Watlynge Strete,
The forthe of these is most of alle.

— Robert of Gloucester.



The fir.st hard roads in England were made by the
Romans. Before their time the ways were grass tracks
through thickets, over moors, downs and hills. All the
Roman roads leading from Dover into the interior of Kent
were on the hills, where they can still be traced. Some
modern writers have indicated the Roman Watling Street,
leaving Dover at Biggin Gate, and proceeding towards Can-
terbury along the present London Road, via Charlton and
Buckland. They forget that the estuary of the River Dour
filled the valley in the Roman time, the roads being then
on the hills. From the north of the Castle, the Roman
road shot out along the eastern up-lands, one branch of it
turning in a direct line to Richborough Castle, its main
branch keeping straight along the rear of Old Park, then
by the side of Waldershare Park, and onward to Siberts-
wold. These two roads can be traced still, their main
outlines having survived the changes of twenty centuries.
From Dover, to the west, the Richborough Road crossed the
Dour Valley, and, passing up Stapping Dune (now called
Stepping Down), continued on the hill-tops through Hougham



4IO ANNALS OF DOVER

and Capel, keeping to the hills that skirt Folkestone Plain,
and making a Junction with Stone Street to Studdfall Castle,
near Shepway Cross.

In Saxon and Norman times, when a new Dover sprang
up on the margin of the Dour, the road out of Dover still
clung to the eastern uplands, departing from the harbour near
St. James's Church, continuing along the eastern uplands;
but as the valley became dotted with villages at Charlton,
Buckland, River, Ewell and I.ydden, a valley road passed
through them; but travelling on the hills being best and
safest, from each village winding roads climbed the eastern
hills — that through Cow Pastures from Charlton; another
called the Green Lane from Buckland ; Whitfield Hill from
River and Ewell; and Coldred Hill from Lydden; all of
which joined the main Roman Road that passed over Siberts-
wold and Woolwich Green to the ancient Watling Street
over Barham Downs.

The present line of the London Road over Grabble Hill
was made about the Sixteenth Century; but the road over
Buckland Ford (where the bridge now is) became the King's
highway still later, the London Road in Elizabethan times
having crossed the river at a ford just below Charlton Church,
following Barton Road and Dndd's Lane to Grabble Hill.

After the Roman occupation ceased, their roads from
Dover to Canterbury were used by Saxons, Danes and
Normans ; but the people of Dover did not travel inland
m.uch in those times — usually, their paths were on the sea.
When the organisation of the Cinque Ports had linked
together the maritime communities, the local routes of travel
were usually east and west. The summonses to attend the
Courts of Shepway and Brotherhood w'ere in most cases
answered, in the m_ost natural way for mariners, by sailing
coastwise ; while others who were not mariners followed the
ancient roads already mentioned to Shepway Cross or
Romney.



SOCIAL HISTORY