Early British Trackways: Individuality of a Ley

INDIVIDUALITY OF A LEY.

Each ley or track was as separate and distinct from other leys as each animal or tree is an organism distinct from other animals or trees. As they crossed each other, no doubt users often transferred from one to the other at the crossing, and struck out in an altered direction, hence the place name element "turn." But the way thus travelled was a route, not a road. It is an absurdity to speak of a sighted road having branches, or bending. Each individual track was "a long lane that has no turning."

Previous writers, treating, say, of Roman or of mediæval roads, not knowing of the existence of the ley, assume that they are speaking of original primary structures, when they are only describing a route evolved from a number of the leys I describe, retaining the sighted structure in the case of Roman roads, but losing most of it by mediæval times.