At last, someone who actually acknowledges pre Roman roads. Indigenous roads were ancient before the Romans got here. Good work Mike, but the truth will continue to be airbrushed as the establishment historian's will continue to tell us that nothing happened before the Romans got here and civilized us.

Sometimes our roads in the USA just end. They just ran out of money and the road, such as it was, simply continues.

Oh wow. Did not know that.

it was the site of one of the family’s palaces so was extremely important to the region for several centuries before the Norman conquest, he just happened to be their most famous resident 😉

I was just wondering whether this 'missing link' between the end of the roman road at Wantage southwards to join the other roman road, could have been an already established, more ancient trackway (perhaps related to the Seven Barrows just north of Lambourn). If such a trackway was already there and being used, no need to build a new road? Which could explain the slightly less straight-line aspect of the route.

Where we're going we don't need Rhodes!

Whoops

Rhodes is all Greek to me.

Wait.... did they find it?????

@@pwhitewick I think so. I know they found a new Fosse Way alignment running right through the hotel grounds in Bath. They also found a path in Cheshunt running through the park. Sorry I do not have the roman map numbers to help. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iKuCdtuC0Ku6foU.html

@@pwhitewick I believe this is it. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iKuCdtuC0Ku6foU.html I think it was an Oxford professor, not at Oxford. I highlighted "Time Team dug up the lawn in Oxford University to find a Roman road" for a keyword search.

THE lawn in Oxford University?

@@spundam I know. It may be a mistake. I can't find an episode for that.

...and a fine explorer's hat it must be!

Or more hair. ps I have less, much less than Paul. I live in sub-tropical Qld where hats are certainly a thing. Often you can identify European tourists by their lack of titfer under the blazing sun of summer. I often wonder how long it takes them to acquire one.

Indiana Jones hat 👍

Landsknechts hat!

A Leather cap with studs worn at a slight oblique angle 👌

"Wayfaring Tree", Viburnum lantana, a fairly large native, multi-stemmed woody shrub commonly found in hedgerows particularly on the chalk downs of the South. It is a poor coloniser, like "Spindle", Euonymus europaeus so both rarely planted in hedgerows after mediaeval times. Paul, have you looked at Hooper's Formula a technique for dating hedgerows? The well known process devised by Dr. Max Hooper, is based on counting the number of woody species present in a measured thirty metre length of hedgerow ( i.e. age of hedge in years = number of certain woody species x 100). It has been found that 70% of the variation in species content was due to age and not differences in soil and climate. The reasons for this are due to a) Early hedges being planted with whatever could be found in local woodland. (a large number of species). b) Additional species (colonisers) being carried/sown by mammals or visiting birds etc. The method is simplistic, variations within 200 years are applicable and there are of course regional variations but the method does give some indication of age e.g. whether hedges are mediaeval, the result of piecemeal enclosure from Tudor times onwards or post Enclosure Act.

and thank you for clearly identifying the tree/bush species

I'd never heard of the wayfaring tree. Gonna look out for it in future. Might get that book on roman roads too.

...or did they just get stuck in a traffic jam around the market square :)

This was debunked many years ago, in National Geographic of all things, and I have read several reports to support it. Some hedges may have been planted with a single species (such as near me in West Devon where there are a lot of Beech hedges) but the majority were planted with a variety of different species.

@@rogerfurneaux1529 Please supply a link to the NG article, I would like to read it. Thnx.

I was speaking to someone at the fishing club. He said, 'I planted the 400 year old hedge over there. 4 species.' So we have to be careful interpreting hedges as many were planted by us as stock proof barriers

Sounds like nonsense to me. By the time there were coaches roadways would have been prepared surfaces travelling through land that was well enclosed. Probably some local lord, baron, earl, or duke had such an idea for an area but it wouldn't have been general practice.

I'm no engineer but would Scala penetrometer tests serve as a good 'primitive' alterntive. If you know the end of a road but are not sure where it branches off, one could do radial tests from that point. If it was widely used, I wonder if the ground would be packed just enough for there to be a significant enough density increase. Of course if there were stones then this whole process wouldn't be needed 😅

You could probably get lidar from Planet labs or something pretty cheap.

Left it in the car me ole fruit!

Margery is not a common book, and the few copies for sale are VERY expensive! I bought the Shires guide by Hugh Davies, but it is very lightweight in both senses of the word...

Onwards, straightforwardly, Legion.

Haha... well I am past 43!

I'd be happy to hold a camera for you as long as I can have a walk with interest 😁

Welcome to the channel.

Thanks Anne. Glad you are enjoying them.

For signs and maps to be useful, you have to have a population of travellers who are literate... That wasn't the case for the Britons of the 4th century. Also they need to be maintained (in the case of signs and milestones) and copied (in the case of maps).

@@jonathanrichards593 Yes, that is definitely true. The bulk of the native Britons wouldn't have been literate or needed to do much travelling. The main travellers would presumably have been officials, merchants/traders and the army, where I'd expect a higher degree of literacy. I suspect a knowledge of how to find North, both day and night, would have been common knowledge, which would make navigation easier.

Found it by complete chance!

Ironically she'd be very happy doing Egyptian history

Ooooh, I will go take a look. Thank you.

Thank you! It did indeed take a long time!

10mins 25. Agreed thats a roman town or fort. Im curious if anybody has noticed it before, its pretty obvious in those pics, but id expect the OS maps to show it marked if so.

Came here to say the same. Certainly that image would justify some further investigation.

Check out Tartraria if you want to get closer to the truth.

Yup, a nice totalitarian state, like something happening similar out East!

I expect they’d have us enjoying those jet packs we were promised decades ago.

Its a very curious thing!

40+ years ago you had almost a 360 degree view up there and you could certainly see Oxford spires.

Largely correct yes. Owing to the recent introduction of Lidar its that easy. Now is a great time to be an amateur archaeologist, because you can pretty much help the association from your own home.

Ooooh like that.

Yes, "stoney - something" is a good indication of a potential Roman site. For example the area of Buxton, Derbyshire known as "Stanneylands" is one candidate for the location of the town's Roman fort. The nearby village of Stoney Middleton is also believed to have been a Roman lead mining settlement.

Definitely on the cards

@@pwhitewick in 1970 we moved to Upper Upham farm and as a kid I remember going there with my dad - I remember those days fondly.

Welcome to the channel! I completely agree. Love this area

Thanks Dave, yeah I kept refering to it as Bicester, but you are right, Alchester is the end goal for the routes.

The RRRA pretty much let members do that themselves.