[Tagging] reviving hollow way

[Kevin Kenny]

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 9:14 AM, Philip Barnes <phil at trigpoint.me.uk> wrote:
> As Andy says Hollow Way is an archaic term, of which the Oxford English
> Dictionary contains many.
>
> More contemporary organisations use the term sunken lane for example
> The National Trust
> https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/what-are-sunken-lanes
>
> http://shropshirehistory.com/comms/romanroads.htm

None of the terms was familiar to me (and I'm a native speaker of
American English who recognizes that the USAians and Britons are
sundered by a common language). But 'sunken lane' at least made
sense as having a natural meaning as a pair of common words;
'hollow way', I'd have had to look up to make sure that its technical
meaning matched my understanding.

Contrary to popular belief, we do have them around here on the
old carriageways and turnpikes - it doesn't take a history back to
Roman or medieval times to erode them. Even 120 years of weather can
exact a toll. I'd be tempted to change the tagging on
https://flic.kr/p/oNCZVD https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/516500341
since that's exactly what happened there.

Off topic:

That is still a public right-of-way used by hikers; the rangers will
occasionally take a Jeep on it as far as the West Stony Creek
campsite gate. The guy who owns the land on both
sides thinks that because the state bought the failed homesteads
farther in, the road is abandoned. He occasionally gates it, and
the state tears down the gate. He sicked a dog on me once
when I was signing in at the trailhead. A whack across the snout
with the grip of a trekking pole made the dog lose interest in
the project - particularly since the dog could see that the
pole had a sharp end, too.

The last time I was there, the dog wasn't, and the sign at the
(open) gate was changed to read "Public easement on
private land - No motor vehicles -STAY ON THE TRAIL!" so maybe
The Powers That Be had a word with the guy.