What happened down Runaway Lane?
Picture a secretive sunken track way winding over hill and dale with tall hedge banks along each side and overhanging trees meeting overhead. Green lanes like this are one of the special features of the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Mysterious, wild, and old as the hills, the much loved green lanes of Devon are also referred to as ridgeways, drovers roads or hollow ways, Devon’s network of green lanes are havens for flora and fauna; foxglove and stitchwort, nightjar and woodlark, names to be found along these hidden byways.
It was in one such sunken track, winding down to the River Erme, where, In February 1643, some two thousand Royalist troops withdrew from the second battle of Modbury, which had lasted twelve gruelling hours. They were heavily outnumbered, four to one, by the Parliament forces. The immediate result of this battle was the raising of the siege of Plymouth.
Runaway Lane, Modbury.
