Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/404

 A HISTORY OF KENT Teynham. — Tumulus on site of a defensive work (now obscure) known as Newlands. Thornham. — Two tumuli. West Wickham. — Three or four tumuli near the earthworks on West Wickham Common. WoMENSwoLD. — Three tumuli on Three Barrows Down. WooDNESBOROUGH. — This mound, often referred to as a tumulus, is believed to be entirely natural. Wrotham. — Large tumulus at Borough Green. Wye. — Tumulus on Wye Downs. Prehistoric Roads. Among the various ancient roads to be found throughout Kent there are some which may be assigned with considerable probability to a pre-Roman period. The narrow road or trackway commonly called the Pilgrims' Way is at once the most important and the most widely known of the series as far as this county is concerned. Unlike the Roman Watling Street which runs from one end of Kent to the other, the Pilgrims' Way follows a course which is determined by the physical features of the country through which it passes. Between the neigh- bourhood of Canterbury and the point at Chevening in West Kent, where it passes into Surrey, it follows with remarkable persistence the southern slope of the North Downs, and traces of it, more or less perfect, can be seen at many places, running sometimes as a grass- covered way, as at Eastwell Park, at other places as a somewhat hollowed- out roadway overgrown with underwood, or choked up with weeds and rubbish. For a considerable part of its course it serves as a road for farm carts. To the east of Canterbury the course of the Pilgrims' Way is not precisely indicated, but the probability is that one branch of it was continued to the sea-coast, at or near the Isle of Thanet, and another was continued to Dover. On the west side of Canterbury everything as to its course is quite clear and intelligible. At Harbledown it continues in a nearly due south-westerly direction, the Roman Watling Street branching off and running to the W.N.W. The Pilgrims' Way then runs through the following places : — Bigberry Wood, Hatch Green (Chartham), Chilham, Godmersham Park, Boughton Aluph, Eastwell Park, near Charing, near Lenham, Hollingbourne Hill, Detling, a little to the north of Boxley, just to the south of Blue Bell Hill (near Kits Coty House), and Burham Street. Just beyond Burham Street the old road appears to divide, one part leading northward to Rochester, the other leading westward to about Lower Hailing, where, it has been suggested, there may have been a ford across the river Medway. Corresponding to the branch that leads northwards, along the east bank of the river to Rochester, there is a similar narrow road on the slope of the Downs west of the Medway, running near Cuxton, Upper Hailing, and nearly at the foot of the hills past Kentish Drover, a little to the north of Trottiscliffe and Wrotham. Beyond this it runs along the foot of the Downs, passing a little to the north of Kemsing Church and then bearing slightly round to the north through Otford, where was a ford across the river Darenth. The next point at which it is 332