Ancient lanes and old main roads

[mjr]

I suspect there are lots of old roads that are quite good cycling. Some are fairly obvious, like the bypassed former A12 through Copdock, Suffolk, while others need you to look on old maps like the Bartholomews 1920s on https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/ which reveals the wide unlabelled C-class "Lynn Lane" Roydon-Grimston-Massingham-Weasenham used to be part of the main route between Lynn and Fakenham. Another locally is Swaffham to Stoke Ferry.

The maps don't find everything, such as the Swaffham-Shipdham road isn't there and only part of Banbury Lane (from Northampton) is, although being a named route on the 1920s map hints at it.

What ancient roads good for cycling do you know near you and is anywhere mapping these?

[Cyril Haearn]

Parts of the Fosse Way and other roman roads

[rotavator]

The old A road around the top end of Loch Crenan is well worth doing and has hardly any traffic on it. Add it onto a loop around Appin for an easy day out and stop at the cafes at Appin on the main road (?Stalker Castle View) or even better at Port Appin. Or for a longer route, tag on the NCN track up to Ballachulish, however, the improvements to eliminate the two A-road sections were still being done last month (February 2020).

[ambodach]

Loch Creran to be pedantic. On the proposed off road cycle route south of Duror I think there has been a change of ownership which may be complicating matters. From Appin Station there is apparently a path up to the cafe above Castle Stalker but I have never managed to find it. It is probably easier to go up to the busy and narrow A848 and climb up a steepish hill to get to the cafe. I would agree that Port Appin is a better bet but if going the bottom route from there to South Shian there are some short pretty steep hills.

[Mick F]

My favourite Old Main Road is the Old A30 from Launceston all the way to Exeter.
Other than a dog-leg just before Okehampton, it's all complete as per the 18th Century turnpike.

[Richard Fairhurst]

There are good bits of Akeman Street around here - i.e. between Bicester and Cirencester. The bit south of Bicester is the A41 and decidedly not a good bit for cycling!

Routes like this are often mapped as historic route relations in OSM, though I don’t know of anywhere that renders them. Perhaps I should...

[Tigerbiten]

Around here it's the A5199.
The road is the direct road from Northampton to Leicester.
It was formerly part of the A50 trunk road that ran from Bedfordshire to Lancashire.
Most of the traffic is now on the M1 which runs parallel around 5 miles away.
So it's wide and quite.

Luck ........

[nirakaro]

The B7076, which used to be the main road from Carlisle to Glasgow before they built the motorway. Now quiet (-ish – the motorway's often quite close, though not that busy), wide, smooth and scenic.

[Bmblbzzz]

Parts of the Fosse Way and other roman roads

Don't know if CH is anywhere near me (though he's clearly read some of the same books) but this. For me it's the sections from Bath (yes, up Bannerdown, stop for a breather at the Three Shires Stone) to Cirencester.

[millimole]

The old A6 North of Leicester towards Loughborough is wide and quiet. The small towns it passes through are calmed.

The A46 (now defacto motorway between Leicester and Newark) between Widmerpool and Bingham appears to have a gated service road - I keep meaning to try it, and then between Bingham and Newark the old A46 is a good quieter route.

I believe that parts of the previous A1 around Peterborough are now cycle-friendly.

These roads are certainly worth knowing about, and it would be a good idea to have them documented. The devil is often being able to access the 'good' road without having to use the 'bad'

[climo]

A4 in Wiltshire. Used to be the main road from Bath to London. Wide and quietish.

[mjr]

I believe that parts of the previous A1 around Peterborough are now cycle-friendly.

Sadly, there's only 5 miles from the south edge of the green wheel to Stilton that that might arguably be true for, then the southern exit from Stilton is cut by the motorway. From the north end of Stilton south to Alconbury, there's a B road parallel to the motorway but I don't think it's the previous A1 and I think it's quite busy.

Past Peterborough and North, the A1 route still occupies most of the previous A1, although there's a poor cycleway between Wansford and the Stamford turn

[pwa]

Parts of the Fosse Way and other roman roads

Don't know if CH is anywhere near me (though he's clearly read some of the same books) but this. For me it's the sections from Bath (yes, up Bannerdown, stop for a breather at the Three Shires Stone) to Cirencester.

The White Way north from Cirencester is a long stretch of very quiet country road. I have been up there on a very still early morning and had a barn owl drift across the road just in front of me.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.75433,- ... 6?hl=en-GB

[Richard Fairhurst]

That's an old saltway, I believe - hence the name. If you continue north to Hailes Abbey it's called Salt Way or Salter's Way at times.

We have another saltway here in Charlbury, cutting across from the A44 near Chipping Norton across to Stonesfield. Most of it is bridleway/byway but it's variably rideable, shall we say. Here's one of the more rideable bits: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3213808

[Bmblbzzz]

Parts of the Fosse Way and other roman roads

Don't know if CH is anywhere near me (though he's clearly read some of the same books) but this. For me it's the sections from Bath (yes, up Bannerdown, stop for a breather at the Three Shires Stone) to Cirencester.

The White Way north from Cirencester is a long stretch of very quiet country road. I have been up there on a very still early morning and had a barn owl drift across the road just in front of me.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.75433,- ... 6?hl=en-GB

Akeman Street is another good one.

And if we're talking about paralleled roads, bits of the old A419 alongside the not-quite-a-motorway that it's become are decent.