Day 3. The Ford over the Stour

Although the Romans were skilled bridge builders, the art largely disappeared from Britain following the collapse of the Roman Empire. The only means of crossing many rivers until Medieval times was via a ford. The name of Preston's nearest town, Stratford on Avon, derives from the place where the straet, or road, met the ford over the Avon.

      An 18^th century map indicating the former ford, drawn shortly after the road was relocated.

The main access to Preston until the 1750s was via a road through what is now Alscot's deer park. This crossed the river via a ford at the bottom of the Mill Ham. The river here was wide and shallow, to make an easy crossing for feet, hooves and wagons. The ford became obsolete when a stone bridge was built by the lord of the manor c.1620.

As indicated on the map above, the road turned along the level piece of ground now called The Slip, planted with poplar trees in the 20^th century, and into the village. The Slip was very boggy until the late 20^th century –  impassable to pedestrians or wagons – but this may be a more recent condition, perhaps resulting from alterations of the ford or the river flow, after the road became obsolete in the 1760s, when the road and bridge were relocated to their present locations. The Ham was built up and extended into the shallow area of the ford in the 19^th century, probably to alter the water flow.

                                  The site of Preston's ford. The spur of land was added in the 19^th century.