THE CONGLOMERATE TRACK 17
The Conglomerate Track
BY E. A. AND E. L. RUDGE
[Read 24 November, 1951]
In the autumn of 1949 we mad; the announcement of our
discovery of an alignment of boulders leading from the alluvial
plain of the River Lea eastwards through the county of Essex [1*].
During the ensuing two years the accumulated results of our re-
searches have enabled us to give the present detailed description of
nearly 200 miles of this alignment, its purpose and objectives, and
its probable age.
Our earliest discovery was that of a remarkable series of five
conglomerate boulders at Holyfield, about two miles north of
Waltham Abbey. These lie in an almost straight line nearly two
miles in length, pointing north-eastwards towards the crest of
Epping Upland. Further search revealed the presence of many
more of these boulders, so situated that there was no doubt in our
minds but that they originally marked out a man-made track or
trail. By recognising the features of this track we have been able to
follow the trail of trackstones eastwards to Marks Tey, then north-
east to Kersey in Suffolk, thence, by a small deviation to the north-
west to Thetford on the border of Norfolk. Here a westerly de-
flection led us to the prehistoric flintmining area known as Grimes
Graves, and we have reason to believe that this spot was the
northern objective of this ingenious alignment.
Westwards across the River Lea, the trail was found leading
towards the town of St. Albans, and beyond to the eastern slopes
of the Chiltern Hills, sweeping in a great arc through Chesham,
Great Missenden, and Nettlebed Common to the River Thames
near Pangbourne. There are indications that the alignment is ex-
tended to the south-west beyond the Thames, and northwards
from Grimes Graves to the shores of the Wash near Heacham.
(Fig. 1).
The most important feature of this trail of boulders is the uni-
formity of the material used. Without a single exception every
trackstone is of conglomerate rock. From Berkshire to Kersey, in
Suffolk, the type known as Hertfordshire puddingstone is found,
and from Kersey to Grimes Graves the stones are flinty conglom-
erates of local origin, in many cases indistinguishable from
puddingstone except by a geologist. In Essex, Herts., and Bucks.
this stone is known by the countryfolk as "breeding-stone",
"growing-stone", or "mother-stone"—names which we have
* For list of Reference see p. 31.