Place Names and Roman Roads (12 S. xi. 330).—I found (in Herefordshire)
the site of an ancient pottery which made crude red ware to line up in straight lines in
several directions, with “red” place names, the presumed ancient tracks on these lines being confirmed by
other evidence. For example, one such line passed through Redborough, the pottery site (Whitney Wood), the Red Lay (a
cottage); it then lay for two miles on a straight, reputed “Roman” road, through a Red House, and over the
Wye at an obviously ancient ford. But I do not know that all the word elements mentioned by the querist (Rea, Re, etc.)
are “red” names. The Red Dial mentioned is interesting. The “Dial Stone” on a ridge of the Black
Mountains is an upright stone marking a trackway, and I find elsewhere “Dial Post,” “Dial Hill,”
and “St. Dial’s Farm, all I think indicating points on trackways.
Alfred Watkins.
Source info: MS note by AW “N & Q Nov 18”; checked in library.