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This legacy version of the site is not maintained. An updated version of the Chobham description and history site can be found at www.chobham.info |
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From just north of Burrowhill, it joins a track which makes a straight line across the Common to Longcross crossroads (the 1965 Ordnance Survey, the 1811 Manning and Bray and the 1770 Roake all show a straight track linking where the Cloche Hat is now to Longcross crossroads). Apart from evidence from maps this track, now unused, can still be found on the ground. Just north-east of Lone Pine are a series of parallel holloways descending the hill. These are too narrow for carts so were most likely packhorse tracks - see photo. As a track became too deep or muddy, a parallel track would have been started.
Once the track reaches level ground the parallel tracks merge into a raised causeway which crosses the boggy ground.
Beyond Longcross, 1971 aerial photographs and the 1770 Roake show a left fork off Chobham Lane (the road past the 'tank factory') heading NE. This is in line with the track from Burrowhill to the Longcross crossroad. Further north this aligns with a straight part of Bakeham Lane. These alignments suggest that the original Longcross crossroad was some 100 metres east of the current crossroad. This is supported by the fact that the three parish boundaries (Chobham, Chertsey and Runnymede) meet here and also that the Travellers Friend pub was on this spot. I cannot find evidence of the track beyond Bakeham Lane but its alignment runs to Coopers Hill and the Old Priory at Runnymede. Coopers Hill, like St Anne's hill offers a superb lookout and may well have supported and ancient settlement. However, Roake 1770 shows that the road curved to the east towards Egham. In which case this old road could have been used to go via the Roman road from Egham to Staines and then across the Roman bridge and then on to London? In early medieval times the Roman road fell into disuse and the bridge destroyed (perhaps by the Danes?). Traffic to London then probably went via Chertsey. In the early 13th C London traffic again went by Staines since the bridge was back in existence and the causeway built across the boggy ground between Egham and Staines.1 p14
The sharp changes of alignment on the southern end of this track may indicate that the main straight track runs SW to NE from somewhere near the Clappers ford (and beyond) to Egham. The southern section maybe is therefore just a branch off down to Chobham. It is almost impossible to follow old tracks once they come off the common and enter agricultural land. They would have been ploughed over quite soon after the land was enclosed. References:
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| © David Stokes. This page last updated: October 24, 2003 |