176 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
'The Conglomerate Track"
Being comments on two papers by E. A. and E. L. Rudge
BY S. HAZZLEDINE WARREN
The intention of the papers by Dr. and Mrs. Rudge is to prove a long 
distance trackway of the Stone Age, marked by boulders of conglomerate,
and constituting a "flint trade way" from Grimes Graves through Marks
Tey, Waltham Abbey, St. Albans, Chesham, across the Thames to
Newbury, and also northwards from Grimes Graves to the Wash. This
course is not visible on the ground, neither is it seen in any aerial photo-
graphs. It is an inference only—in my opinion a mistaken one—and
therefore, to myself, it is premature to discuss its date.
I will begin by re-stating the background to the problem, as this is of
vital importance. The main concern is with the variety of conglomerate
commonly called puddingstone. This originates in the Reading Beds, of
which the line of outcrop passes near the towns of Watford—Bishops
Stortford—Sudbury. There are also isolated outliers of the same beds over
the Chalk country to the N.W. of this line, which are a local source of
puddingstone. Glacial transport has distributed the stones over Herts and
Essex, a few reaching as far as Finchley, Danbury and Ardleigh.
As with igneous and other erratics, these stones were once scattered over
the surface as well as buried in the glacial drifts. Clement Reid (Geology
of the country round Cromer) describes how the large erratic boulders have
been cleared from the land and discarded in hedgerows or along the road-
side, and many used as horse- or mounting-blocks, for the corner walls,
etc. One may add that many others have also been used for more
ornamental purposes, as for garden rock-work and the like. Boulders
discarded along hedges, roads and boundaries will not infrequently be in
alignment.
It is within my own knowledge that this process of clearing plough-land
was actively going on in Hertfordshire in the 19th century.
Drawing a line from one stone to another looks attractive, but it is
difficult to be sure that one is not putting one's own ideas into them. The
Puddingstones are the most attractive stones found in the area, they are,
also very useful for simple building; many that would be ploughed up or
found when digging for various purposes could have no association with
a trackway, and would surely be used in walls in the days when transport
from a distance was difficult.
It may be significant that the course appears to choose the gravels,
because in these deposits the soft material, which also constitutes the greater
bulk of the drift, has been washed out, leaving the stones nearer together.
Important further evidences will appear when quoting Salter's records,
which in some respects I prefer to use rather than my own observations,
as these older records were made before there was any thought of a
trackway. But I might mention that nearer the source of the Puddingstones
these occur in dense local groups with wide gaps between.
With reference to the "ford-stones", I would suggest that these were
probably cleared from the river-beds for safety of crossing as the primary
object; this may have been done at any time, particularly with the