This is the most British video I’ve ever watched. Brilliant. Makes me proud of Blighty.

The stone found by the villa could have just been the house name of a retired centurion who decided to call it "Dunroman".

You know, there is a second possible place where such stones could show up besides where they were placed. I'm Swedish, we of course don't have Roman milestones but we do have runestones which are widely searched for. Those tend to show up in 2 places: In situ and built in the foundation of old churches. More then a few have been found when someone noticed runes on an old foundation. I have only heard of them being found in churches from the 18th century or older (and I only heard of 2 stones in that new churches, most found were in far older foundations). In any case, if there is an old nearby church near where an old milestone should be, it might be worth looking on it's foundation because it was not uncommon to just take any stone large enough and chuck it in the foundation when building the church, most of the runestones found this way was completely intact too. It is certainly a worthy project to try to find one of these stones. I don't doubt at least some of them existed but if they have fallen over and are covered by earth you basically need a GPR to find them, which both is expensive and pretty impractical to bring when you are hiking. Good luck. :)

Excellent! We are meant to have a roman mile post where I live "It is the oldest inscribed milestone found in Derbyshire. The inscription is 'TRIB POT COS II P P A NAVIONE M P XI' which means 'With the tribune's power, twice consul, father of this country. From Navio 11 miles."

i love the mixing of three distance measures in one video: meters, miles/yards and roman miles

I did some measuring on the OS map north of Chester along the Roman Road now followed roughly by the A540. And concluded that the small white early twentieth century County Council milestones are set at Roman Miles rather than statute miles. I concluded that the original Roman milestones at these points had simply been replaced - probably several times - over the centuries since the end of the Roman era. With little regard to accuracy along the route. Something else I noticed was that right angle junctions - ie roads joining a main road also appeared to be at exact multiples of the Roman Mile. Where there would have to be a post of some kind to indicate where the routes went to. So perhaps the reason there are no Roman Milestones to be found is that many have been replaced or updated. And on the sections of road that ceased to be proper roads for vehicles - these pieces of stone have been regarded as abandoned and were carted off to be used as building material. Keep up the good work though - keep looking.

Thanks for getting so wet Paul. Even though you didn't find one we learned a lot about them and every bit of knowledge helps. We'll all be looking for them on walks near Roman settlements now.

Thanks for the directions to Winchester Emperor Whitewick 😂Great video

Long live Emperor Whitewick. Younger than me, but already complaining about ageing. 🤣 Keep searching, one day you'll find a stone! And make videos while you're at it.

As others had said already, worked stone has often been recycled by later people, so you might get lucky looking at building foundation after the romans. - Or even in places like drystone walls on farms. - Look at old buildings/ruins dated shortly after the Romans left and you might get to find one...Long shot I know but stranger things have happened !- Might also be worth reaching out to the metal detector communities around the country and see if anyone has spotted something interesting.

Watching you walking in the rain, hood down, getting soaked, reminds me of an incident in the early years of my marriage. I was out working in the yard in what I considered not too bad a rain (I was soaked to the skin) when she arrived home from work driving along the road along the side yard, stopped to put down her window and yell, “What the hell is wrong with you!? You don’t have the sense god gave a peanut to come in out of the rain.” Standing up from the muddy hole I was digging I proudly stated, “Ha, peanuts don’t come in out of the rain so I am just as smart as a peanut!” Wait…that didn’t come out right.

I could see why you thought that could be one, Paul. It put me in mind of the one at Garstang in Lancashire. The Garstang example has only recently been identified as Roman. It’s just off the line of the Roman road, but for 270 odd years, it has been one of two gateposts on a turnpike. But it does show they can still be found - there’s always hope.

A Roman mile of 1480 meters works out as about 4.8 ft (1.48 meters), Speaking for myself, my normal walking pace is about 4 ft (each step being so close to 2 ft that I've used it for years to measure distances quite reliably). That suggest to me that the 'Roman pace' was actually a jogging step rather than what we would consider a march.

There’s nothing quite like a heroic lost cause. Thanks for the video Paul and better luck next time.

Paul has definitely been spending a lot of time thinking about the Roman Empire!

Thank you Paul, l can only imagine the work that went into this video. Good stuff.

I hope everyone appreciates the production vales and lengths you go to in your videos. One man with one camera, but all the cutaways showing your movement shows great thought and planning!

When you consider the depth that Roman mosaics are found in fields, soil depth increases by around 0.5 mm per year, in forested areas it will be around 1.0 mm per year, this means the likelihood of finding a milestone is almost zero. This is probably why so few have been found, unless its a tall pillar type, or ground has been disturbed the chances are very remote. The only other way to find one is if it's been reused in a building or boundary wall, but of course the context has been lost, so it will just be a rock with indistinct markings on it. I know this sounds all very negative but it doesn't hurt to keep your eyes peeled wherever you're walking, especially now you have an idea what they might look like.

*Wow* !! Such an impressive video all the way around: Educational, “cinematic” and the narrative is well written and very engaging! Thank you Paul!

I have recently been trying to trace the milestones on an early 19th century turnpike. A much easier quest than yours of course but worth baring in mind that in order to be visible from the road they are often on small mounds which could potentially still be identifiable. Also way markers are often used at junctions, another potential place to look. In looking for boundary stones in the New Forest some shown in early o/s maps seem to have been lost to road widening - so probably best to do as you seem to be doing avoiding busy modern roads. It might be possible to identify some potential targets on the mid 19th century 6in or 25inch o/s. Good luck.

Thank you for sharing bits your journey. Even on that some may label as a "failure". The point of a journey isn't the end-goal, but rather what we learn and experience at alone the way.

great video again Paul, very interesting as always , looks like i will be keeping my eyes open when im out and about lol, really well done and thank you 😊

I do love your videos. This one was fascinating, even if your 'find' was not what you hoped. My money is on there being some out there somewhere and that you will find one, one day. Thanks for you dedication to keeping us entertained and educated!

Excellent. There is still so much around us that is yet to be discovered.

Not finding any is just as significant as finding one. You are doing great on the ground research. And making very enjoyable videos as well. That's an achievement to be proud of!

Another excellent video Paul. You really are maintaining very high production values. To echo some of the comments on here, now you have a better understanding of the stones themselves, it may well be worth having a look at some of the older churches close to the roads. Stone may well have been used, and reused, and a trained eye may spot what others have missed.

This was fun and interesting :) A part two would be great :)

I agree with what others have said about finding possible stones in churches. In my area (Mid-Essex) it is said that at least 2-3 churches were built on possible stone circle sites, some of which stones were incorporated into or under the building of the churches. A lot of Roman brick is visible in the fabric of the church walls. Also one church (St Mary's Broomfield) is thought to have been constructed using alot of material from a nearby deteriorated `Roman Villa, there is a stone in the exterior wall of the church which seems to have a face carved into it, as if it were part of a Roman statue or carving repurposed. I would be interested to see more videos on this Hunt.

Paul, I admire your dedication and persistence, 'against all odds'! 👍 The 'case of the missing milestones' brought to mind a similar story, although I'm not implying the milestones suffered the same fate! An American fellow, who likes to mess about in boats, was talking about an obscure journal he had encountered, belonging to a Mississippi boat skipper. He was employed by the authorities over a period of about 30 years around the turn of the C18th/C19th, to remove and dump offshore all the stone navigation stele up and down the Mississippi river system. They just happened to be inscribed with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs!

I live very close to Silchester, and the Imp stone in Pamber Heath. While I do believe that if it is a Roman milestone, it probably isn't in it's original location, I suspect it was originally on a Roman road that isn't identified as such.

Gripped by your dedication to find one! There is something special about a stone marker, be that a milestone, a waymarker or some other special stone mark. They are too easy to walk past without even spotting but, with a keen eye and an awareness of these things, they do pop up in view sometimes! Cheers, Warren :)

Very nice video. As in Doctor Who 'The quest is the quest.' So keep carrying on.

For one of the Roman milestones, Dobbs Weir has one. It’s located just outside a public house, the Fish and Eels.

Even with nothing unearthed or pinpointed, there is value in getting onto the cultural landscape. It's like the anglers saying they go out; catching fish is secondary. Same for some golfers: getting out on the ground it the thing, whether the ball goes in the hole or not is secondary.

Good luck in your search, I hope you find one.

I love watery Wiltshire with it's streams,rivers,-- brooks and Winterbournes. Maybe they were more in the nature of indicators to the lonely traveller that he/she was ON THE TRACK to Somewhere.

I 😂always enjoy your adventures. Sometimes they work out, sometimes not. But I get a little more knowledge with each one. Thanks.

13:24 roller for lawns, crushing stuff in a mill it could have been dug at the end accidentally with your boot to see if theres a round or square hole

What a work and research Paul. So interesting. Thank you for making this subject so enjoyable

If nothing else a very logical bit of detective work. We have a road near us that we like to travel. It was originally surveyed by the young George Washington. He set up milestones on it, probably based on the Roman ideas. They recently did a renovation down the whole road and located a good number of the lost milestones. Route 144 in Maryland. It is a very interesting historical road and maintains many of its most early features which includes town spacing's and their names.

Hi Paul, I was willing you on to find one but it wasn't to be this time. I think one that had fallen down would be quite long as you would need to embed them in the ground so the one you found might be about the right size perhaps. My opinion is that there wouldn't be one every Roman mile. I think they would be sited at junctions or stopping points. How does that fit in with the 95 identified? Finding one really would be a legacy and I hope you get lucky!! All the best!!

Amazing work as always. I’ve been watching your channel quite a few years now. Today was a good day. One of your best videos to date. Keep up the good work. You have a lovely way of explaining things,, I see you brother!!!

appreciate your perseverance. Greetings from Canada.

One of your best videos so far. Thank you for sharing your adventure. Don´t give up! You´ll find something significant sooner or later

Your research is remarkable making these videos very interesting to watch.

I'd rather try to run a 4 minute Roman mile than a 4 minute standard mile. Either way, I have a vast amount of room for improvement!

Im glad you were wearing you anorak

"Let's get hedge diving". Love your hidden easter eggs haha

This might be compared with the search for Range, Township and section stones over much of the USA. Many years ago I found 2 of them in place by digging out stones that had been buried by vegetation that turned to soil, and these Roman stones have had about a 16 century to 18 century head stat on these stones. The lost ones were often found in farmers gardens, having been collected as "Indian Stones"

Loved this. Love history, hope some day you will find one. Thanks for taking me along. Please take care

There is apparently a roman milestone next to a fragment of roman road on or near the roundabout for Kingston Maurwood on the Dorchester to London road, just outside of Dorchester or Durnovaria if you will on the eastern edge of the town, your mission should you choose to accept it is to find and identify and possibly prove your theory, good luck and may the force be with you ;)

Just love watching your dedication. The best history lessons on KZfaq. I hope some day you do find a milestone and you get the credit that you and Rebecca deserve.

Hearing you talk about no milestones before hadrian , reminded me of a lecture when Hedly Swain was speaking about Roman milestones in general , how few & many of those that have remains of inscriptions but no mention of miles.. I wonder how many are part of the structure of old farmhouses, re-used again and again over the centuries.

Fascinating, please keep up the search! It reminded me of that child who used star charts to correctly predict where a lost Mayan city should be in the jungle, given that most of their cities aligned with constellations.

There is one in the Village of St Nicolas on the A48 between Cardiff and Cowbridge, says Legit 11 August, another around Abergavenny somewhere, two in Neath Brecon one in Builth one on top of a mountain near Tregaron , the Pompeius Stone at Margam Museum was standing on the Via Marinari between Margam and Porthcawl, Wales is the least searched in Britain, some have been found in Farmers Walls. St Davids has some Roman Stones that may well have been Milestones, certainly the Stone you said that was not near a Roman Road is Roman, the Marks are of Treasure and a Possible burial, there are many like this between Margam and Cowbridge. Also in the South Wales Valleys near Gelligaer and Pontypridd and Caerphilly and Gelligaer. people are just blind to the History around them, there are Roman marker stones on Mynydd Baiden above Llangynwyd, which was a site of Battle in the 6th Century between Britons and Saxons also on the Margam Mountain and Baiden Mountain which join each other, there are Four Roman Forts, six Celtic Hillforts three of which were still in use in the 9th or 10th Century, also a Viking Fort that was from the 9th Century and was a Trading post with the Celtic people for about 30 Years and also one below at Stormy Down. There are many signs of the Romans that are not registered in Wales, they were everywhere, the Romans criss crossed the Welsh Mountains from North to South and East to West, of course there was no Wales or Scotland or England then and the peoples all spoke Brythonic Celtic , there were Major Gold Silver Lead Tin Copper Silica Iron Ore and other mines all across what is now Wales, with two very Large Iron ore mines at Pentyrch and Llanharri in Glamorgan, also Coal was mined and had been for at least 4000 Years before the Romans.

Awesome Paul. Fantastic channel, very informative.

The best content on youtube. I SO wished you found one. Maybe you will. I'd bet on it.

I’m going to keep my eyes well open for signs of these on my metal detecting permissions - I can see evidence of a section of road and have found lots of Roman coins, building materials and artefacts. Great vid.

Must be stunning to see these Roman era landmarks and partial structures. Your conversation and tour were great as always. Hello to Rebecca and see you on the next, Paul! 🇬🇧🙂👍🇺🇸

Great video. Absolutely fascinating subject and one I had not even considered before. I hope one day your searching pays off. Many thanks.

outside the front door of 110 Lincoln High st is a stone that is known as a roman mile stone, but it has no inscription on it, it is placed in what would be the drainage ditch between the Foss Way and the Ermine St. so is very close to Roman infrastructure.

Another fascinating tour de force well done !

great video again Paul; hard to find something like that - after all nothing is set in stone!

Brilliant video, as always.

Another great video. I like it that you persist even against the worst odds.

the romans used a machine to mesure distance a cart like thing with the wheel rotation turning a cog that was connected to the wheel on the cart after so many rotations a ball would drop marking the distance .i seen this on a documentry .the fact it was mechanised made for better accrracy as you wouldnt be goverened by the stride of any one person as each person may have diffrent stride .

Good luck with your search, it's a great challenge and a noble one. Beautiful countryside. Lucky you don't have any aggressive snakes to contend with, though I keep thinking of Sean Lock's Tramp!!

Nice video. Fascinating topic. A lot of water was definitely flowing through that ford. Wonderful country.

Great video, informative and gripping. If anyone can make the find it’s you. I think you might just be successful in this quest one day.

Excellent well made video/programme.

Great video! Love the roman stuff especially roads and this sort of stuff!

brilliant Paul

Another great videos, Paul.

Sorry you didn't find what you were looking for, but I am glad you posted this. It's an honest adventure presented honestly, without any fabrication or sensationalism, which is something to be applauded.

Thanks Paul for enduring such awful weather and putting yourself out there! You are an inspiration in showing us that we mustn't let the great British weather spoiling our plans! Fascinating content: well done.

Seems like Emperor Whitewick's rain is lasting a long time. Thanks for the great video! I hope the weather is better for your next excursion.

Enjoyed this one Paul.

I’m reasonably well educated, until today i had never connected a milestone with a physical milestone.

Very interesting, Paul. I suspect many of them could be under the ground now. Also, the passage of time has to be a reason why so few are found. Near my parents’ house in Suffolk is the remains of a medieval priory - by remains, it’s one section of wall, about 3 feet long. A Roman mile stone is about twice the age and much smaller than a medieval priory!

what a lovely weather

Thank you!

Great video Paul. I know, from personal experience, how hard it is just trying to find "old boundary stones" showing on 1895 maps (especially in Dorset!). Great research & presentation as always.

As an aside, where was the 'mile' actually measured from ? Was it the centre of the town, the Agora, the main gate or some other point ?I have often wondered where modern road signs that give the distance to some town measure the end point, In London (for instance) is it Trafalgar Square or the Tower of London or somewhere else ? In a similar vein the Greenwich meridian was contested by the French for many years, they wanted 0 degrees to be in Paris instead of London. The start (or finish of any measurement) is always interesting.

Superb video. Seriously excellent adventure!! X

Felt like I was watching a BBC documentary, one of those ones they were making plenty of back in the 2000s. Great stuff, and fingers crossed for finding one in a part 2!

What lovely British weather you had this week! Nice to see you again.

From when I refereed football [and as an architect student] we used one pace as one yard, and practiced on cement footpaths, which were normally 1 yard between expansion joints [before metrification]. So while the 1481m to the Roman mile would be right, according to the internet tables, that would make a Roman mile close to 1618 yards, or 1618 paces. That to me seems a very odd distance to have in a very organised Roman army world. But according to other places on the internet, 'mille passuum, meaning a thousand paces' [or 5000 roman feet, which must mean their feet were a lot smaller than an Imperial foot].

I can’t help but wonder in all the locations you didn’t find one, if there may have been one there but buried a little (or a lot). It seems highly likely for stones to have fallen (or been pushed over). With the time that has passed a fallen stone could get covered over. Finding one would be great, because you would then have a confirmation on where to start measuring and know whether your calculated locations were correct, or possibly off by just a bit. Wish I lived in England and could help!

NZer here - you're sooo lucky, Paul, to be in such an old country with its *mountains* of history! Richard III, for example, being dug up in a car park! Even your geology is great - the dinosaur fossils that the UK has far outnumber ours!

Do you have distances from contemporary sources so that you can check how accurate the 1480 meter mile was measured? As you plot each stone the accumulation of errors grows quite large.

Hi Paul Another interesting video, i dont know if you have done something like this previously, but your bookshelves always grab my attention. Would you consider doing a video on your top 10 reads for finding lesser known paths and roads. I have the old straight track and few on Hardy's Wessex and some on Glastonbury . Plus a few ordnance survey maps. I live in Brasil but venture back to the uk from time to time and do the rounds of 2nd hand bookshops etc.

Gorgeous countryside especially around 3:35.

You need to review your map with areas of land that haven't changed usage to get the best results. Farms and town move and rebuilt everything but if you have a route going through an actual ancient woodland or some other geography that's not been changed then you might have a better chance at the stones also not being moved

Thanks for posting - I've often puzzled over this... 👍

Great video Paul I will be looking everywhere around Wiltshire now for a possible Roman milestone-Thank you-I may never find one but fingers crossed 👍👍

the round pillar looked like an agricultural roller for the fields. Did you look at the ends to see if it was drilled for a shaft, must be thousands of them lying around

Maybe go to pubs/towns and ask the locals - a lot of them may have played around these markers as children and not know what they were.

When I was a child, I was told that a marker stone on the A30 between Sutton Scotney and Stockbridge was a Roman milestone. I cannot remember the location along the road, as I was only about 10 at the time, which is 55 years ago.

Excellent video, I think you are on to something here. Very interesting, thank you.

Brilliant Paul. Water shortage, what water shortage?