Hellidon-Badby Saltway
We were walking the salt road from Stratford to Priors Marston & Northampton. It's memorable not because of its beauty but its isolation. G B Grundy wrote in 19351:
"From here [Wellesbourne] it runs for 12 miles almost due east without passing through a village or even a hamlet, and for many miles there is not even a house on it. It is one of the loneliest stretches of road south of the Trent."
How often have you walked a stretch of old road and thought, “This isn't much good”, then turned a corner and found treasure? It's happened to us so many times that I've lost count.
Last time was outside Hellidon, a Northants village inside SP 5158 on OS 206. At Priors Marston the track goes eastwards up Marston Hill (497577), then gets tangled up with tarted-up paths and a Golf Course. Nice dog-walk but not historically interesting2.
So on to the next hopeful part, which starts at 526582 outside Hellidon. Again, a great disappointment until 537583 at the foot of Arbury Hill. We could hardly believe what opened up in front of us then (#1,2).
On to the hilltop and through a gate and from there the old salt route is marked by a high, steep causeway that runs along the edge of the field, lined with ancient hawthorns (#3,4,5). Marvellous. And a causeway is a sure-fire sign of a very old road. Not an enclosure road but something much older…
After the causeway, the path goes down to meet the Badby-Catesby road at 548588. We would recommend starting at that point and doing our walk in reverse.
(The salt route is tarmacked from that point to Northampton.)
1 The Ancient Tracks of Worcestershire and the Middle Severn Basin, posted to me by David Ella, to whom many thanks.
2 The previous sections of the saltway via Hunscote Lane & Knightcote Bottom, are dealt with under the Warwicks tab.
