Renaming a Roman Road

[@pwhitewick]

A man that questions himself shows he is always learning! Paul Whitewick 2024. Keep going, you are doing hourable work.

[@AllotmentFox]

Thank you. I am layering uncertainty over uncertainty and thinking that makes it more certain. There is a logical flaw in my thinking and I need to tighten it all up. It’s winter, a hopeless time to achieve anything that requires daylight

[@callanist]

I suspect you don't fully grasp how much your efforts in making these videos are appreciated and enjoyed - altogether simply marvellous! Thankyou.

[@ddecker902]

Hello from the US! I suppose I've watched over 150 of your videos (don't worry, I'm liking them as I go and watching them to the end). They're so well made. You are far more knowledgeable than we viewers about your subject. You have a very solid grasp of these charters and how to interpret them, and you have the unique perspective of having walked them and seen the landscape. I wonder how many academics have actually walked these boundaries? Do they ever leave their stuffy little cubicles? You've a legacy here, a valuable one. Granted its KZbin, but that doesn't negate your work or the sheer effort you've put into this body of work. Carry on and stay warm! Enjoy the holiday season.

[@aegelsthrep]

The Black Dog - do look after yourself. I have lived with anxiety for as long as I can recall and admire the courage it may take to do what you do. Your videos are a pleasure to watch.

[@OonaghEllis]

I only recently found your channel and it's been educational and relaxing to watch. Your wildlife shots are amazing. Keep up the good work.

[@jerrygale1994]

Love watching your videos and immersing myself in our history that you describe so well. Thank you for creating and sharing

[@AllotmentFox]

Thank you, you are very kind

[@jamescobban857]

It is obvious from several Roman Roads that the surveyors often used barrows, such as Silbury, or natural hills to set up their instruments in order to get a greater range.

[@petergardner5002]

I find these fascinating and absorbing. I live in a Roman city and love walking

[@lamiaitaly2549]

Really interesting. Thank you so much. I wish you covered Buckinghamshire as nobody seems to know where the Roman roads were!

[@WC21UKProductionsLtd]

That’s great, the charter leading you to that barely noticeable barrow. The prince was daft if he didn’t realise he’d end up being flattened by folks’ determination to use a good road.

[@tomwatson1220]

Tom, don't let the black dog bite. This is not, and rarely can be, science. It's almost all interpretations, and even if one interpretation is flawed, it's still valid and can advance all of us.

[@harley419]

I loved listening to your hypothesis on landscapes. Dont get downhearted. The joy of a well aid hedge

[@AllotmentFox]

What if they lied a thousand years ago? I have always said we need to take what is written as meant by the writers to be taken in good faith but what if there is as much misinformation in their internet (medieval libraries) as there is in ours?

[@davidella45]

At the Northern end of the split in the road - near Weston-Sub-Edge - you can see the deficiencies in the straight route, especially for carts and wagons on a section of steep hill. You can also see an angle change where the road reaches the top of the Cotswold scarp in the typical Roman way, and the revised route is arguably on a roman line

[@niamhhollis-locke]

Seen plenty of laid hedges up on the top of the Mendips around near Priddy and Charterhouse when I was last up there last year - and animals behind them too. Always a joy to see that in some places those old old skills are still alive

[@Neilhuny]

I love the goldfinches you featured! They seem to be doing well nowadays but were a very rare sight when I was a boy in the 70's. On the flip side, I saw a pair of British/Welsh red kites when I was ~10yrs old before they started reintroducing them - it was a bit like discovering gold! I lived most of my life in the Chilterns and it wasn't unusual to see 10 or 15 in an few minutes. . . . I bloody hate that damned black dog! He visits me occasionally - I wish you well; the world really is a wonderful place and you are a fine and wonderful person! As someone that lives a handful of miles from Alcester, I thought I would point out that it is pronounced exactly the same as "Ulster" in Northern Ireland.

[@btapp59]

I too love your videos, they are so informative and well put together, thank you.

[@kersebleptes1317]

Dog or no dog, this was a good one- many thanks! Building a barrow across a road agger (even a minor one) is a pretty uncompromising statement to the people who live down the road, isn't it? And that was a very interesting hedge. Being in Australia, I'm not hedge-literate. I would've completely missed that traditional working if I'd walked past!

[@Lemma01]

Interesting stuff. We're allowed to trust academics wrt data points (sometimes known as 'facts') but as historians we only ever make claims: you must decide if these are evidenced sufficiently. Incidentally, The Hounds Hill was the original name of the pub next to Ettington, now better known as Caffeine & Machine - oh, and "Alcester" is pronouced "ol-ster" by those of us in Warwickshire! Subscribed. ❤

[@andrewduke1489]

So interesting, thank you

[@Beez-III]

I wonder whether there a lot more barrows just lots like that one, food for thought , thanks

[@jointgib]

really good

[@andrewbanwell5424]

Is this also known as Ryknild Street?

[@danielferguson3784]

It's much more likely that the Romans would build a road over an ancient Barrow than that anyone would obstruct a useful routeway by putting a barrow on top of it. Maybe the truth is that originally the road, at all times, simply skirted the barrow, going over it's edge & not right through it's centre. The 'Angles' &' Saxons' may well have been well integrated into the British population in this area, & not a distinctly separate people. There were many Germanic people in Britain throughout the period of Roman rule, particularly in the 'Roman' army, with Cohorts of Auxiliary soldier recruited from all the border areas of the Empire, & particularly the Netherlands, the Rhineland & other 'German' areas. In fact such troops will have been the most typical 'Roman' forces seen in most of Britain. So the German tongue would have been common long before the supposed invasions of the 5th century. Even the Legions were rarely recruited from Italy by the time Britain was being conquered by Rome, most of the Legionaries coming from Gaul & other settled Provinces.