AN INTEGRATED NETWORK OF SOUTHERN ENGLISH PATHS
Ancient routes explored
In his famous book about the Pilgrim Road to Canterbury, The Old Road, Hilaire Belloc made the observation that the topography of Central Southern England is dominated by six ranges of hills, all of which, more or less, emanate from the Salisbury Plain, where is to be found the great Temple of Stonehenge. This was the map he produced to illustrate the concept:
He went on to describe how these ridges became the first roads used by the early settlers of the country, when climate improvements made the county habitable, around 11,000 years ago. The other key route was The River Thames whose centrality to the region and navigability meant it was able to supplement the high routes. He also explained why the North Downs, linking the channel crossing at Dover to Central England became the most important road of all, and this was the subject of his book.
As a keen walker, I was intrigued by this idea; when I first read his book, I had already walked much of all six of the hill ranges and I wondered if could make this a more unified project. Essentially, I set out to use existing trails to build a network of paths that start at the Salisbury Plain and follow each the six ranges to the sea, adding in the River Thames as well, as this was the other critically important geographic feature.
What I came up with was an Integrated Network of Southern English Paths or INSEP, if you prefer. And here it is:
KEY
| Path | From | To |
Information link |
Miles | |
| GOLD |
1. The Greater Ridgeway (aka The Great Chalkway) |
Link | |||
| Wessex Ridgeway | Lyme Regis | Avebury* | Link | 125 | |
| Ridgeway Path | Avebury* | Ivinghoe Beacon | Link | 91 | |
| Icknield Way | Ivinghoe Beacon | Nr Thetford | Link | 101 | |
| Peddars Way | Nr Thetford | Hunstanton | Link | 45 | |
| GREEN | 2. Pilgrim's Way | Link | |||
| St Swithun's Way | Winchester* | Farnham | 34 | ||
| North Downs Way | Farnham | Dover | Link | 126 | |
| PINK | 3. South Downs Way | Winchester* | Eastbourne | Link | 100 |
| BLACK | 4. Mendip Way | Weston Super Mare | Frome* | Link | 49 |
| PURPLE | 5. Cotswold Way | Bath* | Chipping Campden | Link | 95 |
| YELLOW |
6. Great Stones Way (passing through Stonehenge) |
Salisbury * | Avebury* | Link | 38 |
| RED | 7. Salisbury Link Path | ||||
| Clarendon way | Winchester* | Salisbury* | Link | 27 | |
| Shaftesbury Old Drove | Salisbury* | Donhead St Andrews* | 16 | ||
| Wessex Ridgeway (part) | Donhead St Andrews* | Warminster* | Covered in 1 above | ||
| Colliers Way (part) | Warminster* | Frome* | Link | 9 | |
| Mostly Macmillan Way (small part) | Frome* | Bradford on Avon | Link | 9 | |
| Kennet and Avon Canal (part) | Bradford on Avon | Bath* | Link | 9 | |
| BLUE | 8. Extended Thames Path | ||||
| Cotswold Canal Walk (part) | Framilode, Severn Estury | Cirencester | Link | 20 | |
| Thames Path | Cirencester | Thames Barrier | Link | 181 | |
| Thames path extension | Thames Barrier | Dartford | Link | 13 | |
| Darent Valley Path (part) | Dartford | Otford* | Link | 12 | |
| * = intersection point | |||||
| TOTAL MILES | 1,325 | ||||
The Cotswold Way does not of course end anywhere near the sea, but otherwise the network developed much in line with my original idea. Nearly all of the routes use established paths, often National Trails, the exception being the Salisbury Link Path which, I readily concede, is something of a contrivance, designed to join several routes together. I have sometimes taken small liberties with start and finishing points to make certain routes join up precisely.
I have walked all of these routes and recommend them as a wonderful tour of Southern England as well as an exploration of its most ancient routes.
I would like to offer my thanks to these two excellent sites, both of which I have made much use of in building this page.
GPS files can be downloaded for many of the routes from the Walking Englishman site.
I would greatly appreciate any comments.
John Price
October 2024