Before the invention of tarmac, mud must have been a serious hazard for travellers, particularly at the end of winter when some roads were impassable.
But the Saxons, who were good water engineers, also planned for mud.
One of the few surviving Saxon landscapes where this can be clearly seen is along the Dun Brook in Gloucestershire, where three churches all still with Saxon features are shared between the four villages in this short steep-sided valley. It has been an idyllic place to live for more than 1,500 years.
The villages are linked by an ancient network of roads just wide enough for a horse-drawn cart. Most appear virtually unchanged since the Saxons developed them. The summer roads are in the valley bottom, along the shortest route between the settlements. The winter roads are longer, up and along the valley sides, well drained enough to be passable in the wettest weather.
Three of the villages – all called Duntisbourne: D Abbots, D Leer and D Rouse – all still have fords across the crystal clear brook. The most interesting feature is at Duntisbourne Abbots, where the brook is deliberately directed into the road between high walls and raised pavements. It is both road and brook for about 200 feet before the Dun is diverted back into the fields. The stream flowing over the solid shingle is now designated “unsuitable for motors,” but this is said to be the only surviving water lane in the Cotwolds. It was designed to wash the mud from horses’ hooves and cart wheels as they were driven the last stretch home. An original Saxon car(t) wash.
