HER 9393 DESCRIPTION:-

The road up Crickley Hill which, by medieval times if not earlier, formed a route to the Cotswolds and had become the main road to London by C18. The 1704 map gives it as an Oxford Road; another in the same set labels the Birdlip road to London. It is unlikely that the original Crickley Hill Road is much different from that shown on early OS maps. In 1775 Francis Grose wrote: "The road at 5 miles and 1/2 divides. When I turn to the left and again to the right I begin to ascend the hill first by a gradual rise and afterwards by a very steep one, at the foot of the steep part is an ale house or Inn, about half way up is another opposite to which is a fine spring well. The road near the top appears to have been cut through the rock, the ground on both sides of it standing very high." {1}