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This is the old London road from Oxford at the top of Shotover Hill. The first coach started out on the route in 1669. Passengers had to get out of laden stagecoaches and walk up the steep Shotover hill to spare the horses.
Highwaymen were rampant on this route outside Oxford in the 18th Century.
https://www.headington.org.uk/history/misc/roads_to_london.htm
@Broadfork
Routes like this through woodland would sometimes have the trees felled on both sides to some depth, to deny robbers & brigands cover; The area here to the right *might* be a remnant of that practice I suppose?
(I read this in one of Oliver Rackham's books)
@botvolution There will certainly have been places where that was the practice. I need to learn more about turnpike toll roads.
I love how finding out a little bit of history and applying it to a landscape can let the imagination run free.
This is an unlikely ambush spot, too close to civilisation, but the route to London would offer plentiful places for robbery & escape.
There’s a farmhouse through the trees to the left with wide ranging views across the Oxfordshire landscape from there.