I cycled up it from Podimore as far as Warwick Services last Friday. Plenty of those deviations do make sense for grading purposes! But there was one really steep bit that was gravel byway (near Malmesbury), that I had to walk down, but then discovered that it was the site of Easton Grey, an early Roman town. The wiggle there was again for bridging the River Avon with a steep valley.

The Rolling English Road BY G. K. CHESTERTON Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode, The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road. A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire, And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire; A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head. I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire, And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire; But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made, Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands, The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands. His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun? The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which, But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch. God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier. My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage, Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age, But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth, And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death; For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen, Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

Agreed! I thought it means a little party. Though I am going by the context of a classic 80's movie called Weird Science in which Kelly LeBrock (speaking with english accent) uses it. Tim you seem a bit younger than me so if you have not seen the movie, give it a watch. I am quite sure Paul had already seen it. 😁

I feel that we need to somehow organise an official Roman Road Soirée

@@pwhitewick post lockdown meet-up?

@@duckydashcam751 most definitely

@@pwhitewick that seems a bit riskay if we were to do as the romans did when in rome😬!

I think your right in what your saying that the deviation was perhaps the later.... and for reasons such like being boggy etc not to mention how steep. The Romans didn't make mistakes it seems, I think even perhaps there was the choice of two roads, for example the army wouldn't want to march an extra 5 miles whereas cargo being horse drawn etc would have found it near on impossible to navigate fully laden hence the road round... just trying to make perfect sense of a mystery. I believe there is a point on the A3 in hampshire at the queen Elizabeth Country Park bypass where you can see the old road on the cliff... the old road was to steep as traffic increased and transport evolved so a new road was cut, obviously not roman and not quite the same thing but simular.

Cheers Dave

Absolutely did not consider this

@@pwhitewick When the boss drew the line on the map he accidentally got his thumb in the way of the straightedge and left a bump . Workers:- "well that`s wot he drew, I ain`t questioning his judgment , he might send me up north to deal with the Scots!"

Either that or a big solar wind hitting earth coincided with when they were setting this section out using their GPS

@@white-wy6dg There's a legend that the Trans-Siberian Railway has a deviation because, when asked to indicate the route it should take, the Tsar got a map, put his ruler on it, and drew a straight line. The ruler had a nick in it. ;)

Our pleasure!

Yup perfect time of year indeed.

Thank you.

I was about to comment that this might've made a splendid Time Team project. (Not sure it's Phil's preferred period though!)

Top detective work indeed, deeper exploration is certainly called for now. Would be quite a coup to have been the ones to have discovered this!

Yes...

Ooo ah! My thought exactly, get Time Team on the job! Tim Taylor the original series producer is actually working to bring the series back right now, he's launched a new youtube channel and patreon to get people involved and already has many of the original luminaries and crew on board. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hst8e9ihrKympoU.html

@@twothreebravo this would be a great project for the new team!

Fortunately indeed

I haven't got a copy of the larger Margary work shown, but I do have a copy of his "Roman Ways in the Weald" which is fascinating...

Cheers Marco

Our pleasure Andrew

I love my Ditch

@@pwhitewick The man loves his ditch. Better watch out Rebecca. Paul does love that ditch!

Thanks Gilles, much appreciated.

And Rebecca puts up with him!

If Paul got anymore excited, then he might have gone and done some kind of victory dance.

Weird fact: Old roads like the South Downs Way follow the tops of hills with all their ups and downs rather than the much flatter valley bottoms. One of these days, I hope to find out why.

Our pleasure!

Cheers Tom, I am attempting to get permission for a further dig around.

Never heard of a Dew Pond... off to Google now

I was about to make the same comment. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kNBilc1zsbnVk3k.html

I think you will find many pits in that area. The local cottages are made of chalk and flint. Flints need to be dug up.

@@Alan_UK Yes but Dew Ponds are found on chalk.

Hi Guys, was wondering what website you used that had the roads mapped on it

Yup, we have amore to do on this route for sure. The issue is the northern section of this mystery sadly has no Lidar available.

Thanks Brian.

Cheers Malcolm, get the map out and email me if you find anything! Its a dry valley apparently.

@@pwhitewick Thanks. I’ll get something back to you over the weekend.

Thank you Chute! It was a pleasure. We actually filmed another video whilst we were wondering around up there so watch this space!

The deviation at the north end is equally as "Immediate" so definitely ties in with that theory.

You've answered the very question that I was going to ask before checking the comments. 😄 First thing I thought when I saw the map was " looks just like Babcary!"

Cheers Henry, hopefully a lot more! All part of the fun

Thanks, twas good fun!

On it!

Not a bad thought Hector. I am positive the causeway was in use way before the Romans came along.

Ah thanks and welcome

Thanks, will do!

It's one of only two reasons I can come up with the immediateness of the deviation.

I played paintball there when it first came to the UK (1981 iirc) and those hills were more painful than the paintballs. Also I remember the hares there were the size of collies.

Thanks Andrew very kind.

Very true David. I think had they both continued the meeting point would be close to the northern end of the deviation.

Haha... we used to. This is all by Biba Dupont

Its a lovely route to cycle in the sun

Definitely need to get in touch with the farmer here

@@pwhitewick Yeah, kinda thought permission would be needed, hopefully the landowner is agreeable:-)

Thats the issue... I have no idea where to start!

Not to mention the A45 at BHX!

That deviation is relatively modern, from the time the base was constructed. Ermine Street itself can still be seen on OS maps and on Google actually passing through the Scampton Airfield.