SOME SUNKEN TRACK-WAYS NEAR SAFFRON WALDEN. 239
keeps on level ground for the first mile and a half or so. After
this, the ground begins to fall ; and, a little to the south of the
junction of roads (376 ft. O.D.) near Monks' Hall, the sunken
track-way begins on the right (west) side of the present road
at an elevation of about 350 feet, and continues, growing deeper
as one proceeds, for about 500 yards, to a point, at an elevation
of 292 feet, marked as Chapel End, between Mitchell's and
Ravenstock Green Farms, where it ends in a pond, due to its
having been dammed to form a gateway ; the track-way having
descended about sixty feet thus far. In the lower part, it is
very deep, very steep-sided, and very densely filled with bushes,
with a trickle of water in its bottom. But there is every
appearance that the track-way did not end at the point indicated,
and that originally it continued, still descending, farther south,
perhaps almost as far as Little Walden (about 200 feet) ; for the
road thus far has high banks in places and has evidently been
altered and widened.
(2) The Debden Road.—This is the shortest, shallowest, and
least interesting of the three track-ways. It begins at a point
(elevation about 350 ft. O.D.) about 400 yards south of the
Roos Farm, running thence northward, immediately on the
right (east) side of the present road, for about 230 yards,
descending in that distance about 60 feet (to about 290 ft.).
It is quite shallow, being no more than about five feet deep,
and having apparently been filled in. It is largely filled with
bushes and picturesquely shaded by handsome Scotch firs
(Plate XVII, figs. 1 and 2).
(3) The Newport Road.—This track-way—certainly the most
remarkable of the three—differs from the other two in that it
rises, instead of descends, as it approaches Saffron Walden from
the south, though it continues as a road which does ultimately
descend steeply into the town. It is obviously a part of the
ancient road or track-way which gave access to Saffron Walden
from Newport, London, and the south generally. Its course of
rather more than half-a-mile (text-fig. 3) lies wholly within the
bounds of Shortgrove Park, in the parish of Newport. Leaving
the London-Cambridge road6 at a point (elevation about 175 ft;
O.D.) on its right (eastern) side, a little over a mile north from
6 This, though an important road, is a valley road, and probably, therefore, not Roman.
It may be, however, very much earlier than Roman times, see Trans. Essex Archaeol. Soc., n.s.
xvii., p. 237 n. (1925).