ROMANO-BRITISH WORCESTERSHIRE have no concern with it. But antiquaries of the twelfth and following centuries, Henry of Huntingdon (p. 204), Ranulf Higden of Chester and others, got hold of the name and made use of it, obviously without knowing exactly what it meant. Hence one of them said that Icknield Street ran from east to west — which is the truth, somewhat exaggerated — and another that it ran from north to south. The views of the anti- quaries spread, and two Icknield Streets arose into use as names, the one for the real Berkshire and Oxfordshire street somewhat extended, and the other for the road which we have been describing from Derby to Wall, Alcester and the Foss Way. Hence we meet, in a deed dating from Henry III., a Henry de Ikenyld Street, and in another deed, dating from Henry "VIII., an Ikneld Street, both at or near Alvechurch, close to which our road runs.^ Now it is precisely this intrusion of Icknield Street into the west that is in all probability responsible for the name Rycknield Street. For the conjecture of old Thorpe is by no means unlikely, that Ryck- nield is merely a misreading of Icknield, spelt as it sometimes is with a prefixed H. The name Rycknield does not appear in any form till the fourteenth century, while Icknield Street, as we have just seen, is attested near Alvechurch in the thirteenth century. The first mention of Rycknield seems to be in the works of Ranulf Higden of Chester, who, like most medieval chroniclers, mentions the ' four great roads ' of Britain. These roads are, he says, the Foss Way, Watling Street, Ermine Street and ' Rykeneld Strete ' ; and it will be noticed that ' Rykeneld Strete ' here occupies the place which is given to Icknield Street by all Higden's predecessors, and indeed by very many subsequent writers. It is difficult not to suppose that Rykeneld is not a mere clerical misreading of Hikeneld, that is Icknield. But the matter does not altogether end here. Higden describes the course of ' Rykeneld Strete ' as running from Mavonia (St. David's) through Worcester, Wich (that is Droitwich) and Birmingham to Lichfield, Derby and beyond. Whether he knew anything of the route which we have noticed as No. i in our list must remain doubtful, and does not much matter : his remarks were interpreted to refer to the road which we have described, and which before him was called Icknield, the road which runs through Alcester. Gradually, as the medieval writers became more clear and critical, they recognized the inconsistency of two Icknield Streets, one of which was apparently Rycknield also, and they called the Worcestershire road Rycknield Street alone, though traces of the other name survived in some abundance in local names and deeds. And later writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, influenced by Higden in another way, tried to trace Rycknield Street turning to- wards Wales. Somewhat perversely neglecting the Worcester and Droitwich road (No. i above), they imagined various other routes. Such is, for instance, a road turning off from the real Roman road at Bidford and running south-west along the terrace of Cleeve Hill, for 1 Allies, pp. 332. 339- 215
