page_title: The Ridgeway
section_title: Places along the Ridgeway
hierarchical_section_title: The Ridgeway / Places along the Ridgeway
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaswood signpost at Overton Hill Wiltshire. The start point of the Ridgeway National Trail.
context_page_description: The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ridge of the Berkshire Downs to the River Thames at the Goring Gap, part of the Icknield Way which ran, not always on the ridge, from Salisbury Plain to East Anglia. The route was adapted and extended as a National Trail, created in 1972. The Ridgeway National Trail follows the ancient Ridgeway from Overton Hill, near Avebury, to Streatley, then follows footpaths and parts of the ancient Icknield Way through the Chiltern Hills to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire. The National Trail is 87 miles long.
context_section_description: Places that are near to (or on) The Ridgeway National Trail include (from west to east):
  Avebury
  Overton Hill
  Swindon
  Marlborough
  Liddington Castle
  Wanborough
  Wayland's Smithy
  Uffington Castle
  Lambourn
  Segsbury Camp
  Wantage
  West Lockinge
  East Lockinge
  West Ginge
  West Hendred
  East Hendred
  Harwell
  Chilton
  Compton
  Didcot
  Blewbury
  Streatley
  Goring-on-Thames
  Wallingford
  Thame
  Chinnor
  Reading
  Henley-on-Thames
  Princes Risborough
  Cadsden
  Aylesbury
  Wendover
  High Wycombe
  Tring
  Ivinghoe Beacon
caption: The distinctive black Ridgeway signposts are made from 'Plaswood', an environmentally friendly and maintenance-free plastic material made from recycled waste.
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