This Road just VANISHED! Why?
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- Опубліковано 27 кві 2024
- For quite some time now I have seen a whole bunch of milestones that look like a traditional turnpike road. But we can find absolutely no trace of it online. Inspired by the Team at www.hiddenwiltshire.com/ we decided to solve this mystery once and for all.
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Usual notices:
1. We are not historians. We enjoy researching and learning, and with that we enjoy sharing our journeys with you. That said, sources for information often listed below with credits.
2. Errors. Whilst we make every attempt to not include any errors, research, and piecing stories together from dozens of sources sometimes leads to one or two. I will note here if any are found:
a. I think I said XX then "Two two" on the last milestone. I meant II.
Credit and Thanks
Inspiration: www.hiddenwiltshire.com/
Filter: Snowman Digital and Beachfront B-Roll
Maps: Google Maps
Maps: National Library of Scotland
Maps: OS Maps. Media License.
Stock Footage: Storyblocks
Music: Storyblocks
Old Map: NLS - www.nls.uk/
All pictures: Creative Commons (listed below):
Andover - Weyhill Rd Salisbury Road Toll House: Ethel Tiller
Round House 1: RodW
Milestone Example 1: PhilGryce
Round House 2: Robert Wade
Imber: Scott Wylie
Round House 3: Joaquin ORyan
Andrews and Dury Map: Via Hidden Wiltshire.
Video mentioned:
• Why are there NO Railw...
Chapters:
00:00: Intro
00:44: The Turnpike Road
02:24: Evidence
06:56: Map Time
12:12: Last Piece of the Puzzle - Розваги
This is what the internet is supposed to be for. What a fantastic mystery. The idea that this is an older route, given there were so many, along the high ground, makes perfect sense. Much more should be done to look at it.
A simple trick for making out hard-to-read inscriptions on things like milestones or gravestones is to use some flour. It will rub off the main surface but stay in the grooves. My mother used this technique years ago for transcribing gravestones in the local churchyard.
Thanks, I'd heard this about chalk too!
We unexpectedly found an abandoned turnpike last week. Followed a path down stream from Ilam Derbyshire and the footbridge we expected was a beautiful stone bridge with 1 main and 2 smaller arches a 100 yards long. It’s called Coldwall Bridge and carried a turnpike from Staffordshire to Derbyshire. It was abandoned as motor vehicles couldn’t get up the slope from the river, the Dove, on the Ashbourne side. Ironic that your video this week is about an abandoned turnpike.
Point of interest - Wiki says of 'Edington' - At the Battle of Edington, an army of the kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great defeated the Great Heathen Army led by the Dane Guthrum on a date between 6 and 12 May 878, resulting in the Treaty of Wedmore later the same year. Primary sources locate the battle at "Eðandun". Until a scholarly consensus linked the battle site with the present-day village of Edington in Wiltshire, it was known as the Battle of Ethandun. This name continues to be used
I really wasn't aware of the masses of history here. Just became obsessed with the milestones!
Wiki says ?
Denis, what are you referencing? I guessed National Library of Scotland, which was used in this video, but I couldn't find a wiki there.
@@j_taylor Wiki : 'Battle of Edington'
@@denisripley8699 Wikipedia? Found it, thanks. Wiki is a type of software, not a site, which is why I asked.
A friend of mine lives in "Shane's Castle", a toll house in Devizes that looks like a folly castle. It's brilliant :)
Ooooh I know the one. Love that.
Don’t forget that there were two Sarums; Sarum as in Salisbury and Old Sarum which was abandoned for generations with nobody living there. It did however have two MP’s and it was known as a Pocket Borough. That meant that as no voter lived there the landowner could decree who the MP’s were and thus have two votes on the House of Commons.
I suggest that the route was originally devised to promote the Borough of Old Sarum, the turnpike had to have a Parliamentary Act, so the landowner could have two MP’s still. Not all turnpikes were very well maintained and in later years there was political shuffling about it. In the Reform Act of about 1832 , I think, the Pocket Borough MP’s lost their seats and thus the subterfuge of the road was lost especially if it was a difficult route.
I've always heard them call "rotten boroughs" instead. Pocket borough makes sense too though, in the sense that the borough is 'in someone's pocket.'
@@R.J._Lewis "I grew so rich that I was sent
by a pocket borough into Parliament,
I always voted at my party's call
and never thought of thinking for myself at all." ("He never thought of thinking for himself at all!")
@@R.J._Lewis A pocket borough was not quite the same thing as a rotten borough. With a pocket borough, the voters were 'obliged' to vote as they were told by the man who had them 'in his pocket'. Typically, he might be their landlord, and so they would be dependent on his good will for their homes and livelihoods.
A rotten borough was one with no (or virtually no) population, and so the landowner had the controlling vote. This was the case at Old Sarum, which had the right to send two MPs to parliament, despite having only a handful of people living there.
Interesting video. Well made. So sunny! But I have to note a few things. Firstly. The road still exists. Apart from the part that goes through the Imber firing range, it is byways all the way. Even Chain Drove is a restricted byway. Secondly, there is no evidence I've yet seen that the road was ever turnpiked beyond Tinhead Hill. Milestones do not necessarily mean turnpikes. Thirdly, the turnpiking of the road through the Wylye valley, through Warminster, and then to Bath by various turnpike trusts would have at last created a way through the valleys that didn't involve slogging up and down Salisbury Hollow :)
Fourthly, the road certainly existed before the turnpike era and the coaching era. Langland's book "The Ancient Ways of Wessex" has some info on this road (P.128-129): "Finds in the parish of West Ashton... dating from the early to mid-eighth century, indicate a possible trade route connecting this area with the south-east. To the south-east of this study area [Bradford on Avon], this route can be traced across Salisbury Plain ultimately as far as Stapleford..." So, it might be that the road dates back to the 8thC at least. What's intrigued me in the years I've been thinking about this road is that the route might be old enough to connect to Old Sarum, rather than New Sarum (although, of course, the milestones would be referring to New Sarum, and a possible route, after Chain Drove, down the A360). Anyway, enough rambling from me.
I've also just remembered something that might interest you (everybody) that I found in "Before the Bypass", by Arthur Houghton (1989) which is about roads local to Warminster. Houghton mentions on Chappteron Down a "most remarkable route of the Roman period", a "stretch for 600m along a holloway", which passes a Romano-British settlement and is, Houghton claims, "obviously the villlage street" but also a "through road". Now, a "British Village" is marked on Chapperton and Chitterne Downs, and the Old Slow Coach Road does pass this. If this is all true, this would push the age of this road -- at least, this stretch of it -- a long way back. Unfortunately, it is not easily assessible, as it is the stretch from Breach Hill to New Zealand farm, which goes through the Imber Range danger zone.
Excellent. And on behalf of the Hidden Wiltshire team thanks for the hat tip. Bit concerning you use us a reference (although Wikipedia also does on occasions). We’re as much in the dark as you! 😂
Come on... you are doing yourselves an injustice. Your research is exemplary
The Bath end's a bit of a mystery too. The turnpike road is really obvious leaving Trowbridge - it's the Westwood Road. It continues most of the way as a still surprisingly good quality unclassified road right until it descends Staples Hill with absolutely massive retaining walls. Then it hits Freshford and basically gives up. There's a short section called New Road that's presumably turnpike in origin. It really looks like they ran out of money to reach Bath. Or even Limpley Stoke. The MOT evidently took one look at this and thought that even numbering the bit through Freshford as a B road would be ridiculous. So there's this sort of road to nowhere.
I really like your videos so please don't think what I'm about to write is in any way a criticism, but as soon as you mentioned the name Slow Coach Road I immediately assumed that this road must've gone out of major use when the Turnpikes (and therefore faster coaches) were built, or very shortly afterwards.
Maybe the fact that I grew up just outside Salisbury has something to do with it. There are so many old wide droveways that clearly used to be heavily trafficked but are now effectively deserted. There's also a small early Medieval track that's locally called the Jigajog (implying pony traffic) going past where my parents still live, which is parallel to the so-called Highway, built as an 18th Century turnpike and now called the A338.
When I was there a kid this kind of abandoned road stuff felt normal. Just type 'Salisbury bridge to nowhere' into google for an example of why. It was only when I started seeing other parts of the country that I realised how unusual it was!
I am sure you are right. The name itself does give us perhaps the biggest clue.
I was more curious about why the route had stayed on maps for so long after its closure, than why it closed so quickly. It was marked as used on these maps for 16 years, and then has been kept as a marked unused road for coming up to 300 years. I guess that also says something about its status as a millennia-old route.
Looks like most of it was still used, just lost its Turnpike status and was never upgraded from dirt.
The "high roads" were often just that, roads along ridges or high ground, which was much safer. You could see people approaching, and they would be coming up-hill, slowly. You had room to manoeuvrer. Ambushes were much easier in the valley, and you would have nowhere to go/escape. So travelling on foot, the high roads were safer. As the country became more civilized/safer and carriages became the norm, roads along the valley would be as safe but faster.
Yeh, always wondered why the Ridgeway was so called.
@@gbcb8853 The point is in times past the Old roads were on the hill tops and ridges, which is where this old rout was. Hence, being a SLOW coach route. As coaches came into general use, the old high routes fell out of use. There are a LOT of once primary routes that are now no more than bridleways or footpaths. Which is all most of them ever were. It was only when carriage traffic increased in the 1800s that the low, faster, routes became the main routes.
I also suspect more advanced drainage technology played a part too.
@@CJLloyd It was more to do with the roads for carriages. drainage technology like that didn't start coming in until the late 1800s and early 1900s
Sitting here feeling chilly in Birmingham, envious of the beautiful weather and landscape you've been out in.
I had a good couple of days!
Since they named it "the old" I would assume they were upgrading an already existing path and not creating a new one. Might have been a foot path they improved for couches though.
The clues are likely in the landscape since if it wasn't the fastest way to get between the cities, it probably stopped by places that mattered.
But even if it passed by the Hillfort on purpose, that doesn't completely narrow things down. Hillforts were built already from the late bronze age even if most of them were at the iron age (not sure about this specific one) but they also got new use by the Romano British after 410 CE and by the Saxons up to Alfred the Great.
So the only way I see to figure out more is to see what other historical sites are along the road and what time they were in use. Particularly for when the road goes a bit off for no apparent reason. That wont give us an exact date but again, it will give us more clues. At least the only way that isn't archaeological trying to find artifacts we can date from when the road was in use but that one would be pretty hard to find funding for.
I don't think they just made a random decision where the road was supposed to go and stopped using it after less then 20 years, there is clearly more to this story.
Interesting research any ways, good job. :)
Yup. Agreed entirely. So the thinking is this was a route, long established and long in use through a variety of ancient or otherwise, reasons. But the question remains, why does it act like a turnpike in so many ways, yet wasn't listed.
@@pwhitewick That sure is interesting, yes.
Bath is also an important place in Saxon times since it was on the border of the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia so one possibility is that the road is originally a Saxon military road.
It was pretty common to use old hillforts which are on the road as cavalry bases...
Another older option would be the Dobunni tribe before the Roman invasion. While Bath wasn't really a city at that time, it was an important religious place with it's 5 holy springs.
In any ways, it is possible it wasn't listed because the road had been long out of use before they renovated it in the early 1700s and just had become a poorly maintained foot path until then.
I am trying to think if it was built for military purposes, when it would have been important for unit movements, it could also be a civil trade route.
I don't see much military use for it after Alfred the Great besides maybe just after the Roman invasion so it might also be worth to check old records to see if the cities were having major trade during any specific period.
It doesn't really look like a Roman road so I think that option is out. But since it is highly placed it would give a cavalry unit a good view of the surrounding landscape which is why I suspect it is military. It is very hard to ambush a unit on a road like that and that might be worth not taking the closest possible path.
That is my thinking anyways, I am leaning towards it being Saxon built originally with the information currently available but it is just speculations.
Hi Paul, you might be interested to know that Jack Hargreaves did an informative programme about this very route in the 1970s - where it went, how it was used. Etc. I believe he took his horse and carry along it and met other travellers too., the video is now available on utube
Thanks for that idea Anne. I think you may mean this one...ua-cam.com/video/GmOhltFV5pc/v-deo.html
His link to the phrase The Kings Highway in relation to pre-17th Century routes is interesting. 'High' to avoid the water sodden lower routes caused by poor drainage. Perhaps this route 'disappeared' because the lower routes became better drained and so they were more practical and speedy.
Oh wow. Thank you, didn't see this one!
Really interesting. It's amazing those milestones still exist and haven't been taken away. Thank you as ever for sharing your enthusiasm. 😊
Thanks Pauline. The archaeologist serving the MOD does a great job.
Very Good Paul - There is a Toll Bar near where I Live - It is in Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire & it is now & been for a number of Years a Fish & Chip Shop on the A623!!! 😊😊😉🚂🚂🚂
A well constructed, well researched, interesting and entertaining story. There was even a railway line involved!
Those milestones must be along the original road.The road has moved a few meters in places. When I was a teenager in the early 70's I loved looking out for milestones when out on long bicycle rides with my friends
That's a great point. Some are over 10 metres away.
Great to see you almost in my backyard again. I've explored these lanes so many times, and wondered if they used to be more significant. Thanks for this one.
I am fiddling "Swinging on a Gate" on Violin.
My cottage dirt (since 1935) road is one mile long from pavement to Sebago Lake, Standish, Maine, US.
Hello from the rocky Atlantic mid-coast of Maine, US. April 28th, 2024.
I used to live in Kennebunkport.
You deserve an award for doing these. Never stop.
Thank you, very kind.
Excellent. A hell of a lot of research went into this.
I really enjoyed the footage on the army managed sections - the countryside there is teeming with wildlife and so different to the intensively farmed arable.
@Paul .... Fascinating insight to old mile stones!! Apart from the usual ones you see by the side of the road (Council tart them up a bit!!) I've never given much thought to the older ones.
Fascinating! Also, I hope your ankle is healing well ♥️
Thank you.
Paul, really interesting video and systematic examination of the history of this enigmatic route. I think most of the road is shown on Rocque’s map of England & Wales (published posthumously but I think using surveys from the 1720/40s). It’s a bit schematic but its plotted from Salisbury, to Elstone, around Orcheston , a little NE of Bratton (so Edington?) then Hilperton to Bathford. As others have said, there is no Act to turnpike the high route from Yarnbury to the top of the hill at Tinhead and the Act that covered the road north from Tinhead to Trowbridge, creating the turnpike trust in 1751 was not renewed when it expired 21 years later (the not renewed in 1767 relates to the separate Trowbridge trust which did take over the T&T roads NW of Trowbridge). One slight worry is that Ogilby’s 1675 road which passes through Orcheston (for 2 miles through a valley) towards Boreham, shows the route to Sarum heading south along the river through Winterbourne (as does the Rocque map) and the most likely junction to the north is marked to Lavington. I think this reflects the multitude of options across the open Plain - maybe why it was important to mark the best one in 1753 to reach the turnpike to the north. One last thought - in 1712 I think “coach” would be a gentlemen’s private coaches going to the spa at Bath (infirm people wouldn’t want a fast bumpy road!).
Interesting discoveries and know much of the area explored. I've also come across many of these milestones on my walks across Wiltshire and agree, the bulk of the route takes the high ground along chalkland ridges suggesting they date far further back in time to when the the valleys were had to pass through due to bog and scrubland, this seems typical of many ancient routes across Wiltshire. Modern routes from Salisbury to Bath take valley routes, largely through the Wylye valley.
Stones. ❤
I have now watched this video 3 times to really understand everything you are telling us.
Thank you for explaining the Turnpike Roads, or what they are. I have heard the term several times in the last couple of years, but I never had the motivation to actually look up what it means. As if I knew that Paul Whitewick would one day solve that for me. 🤣
It's an excellent video. I just wished you wouldn't have said the road was abandoned. Yes, it vanished from the maps because it became just a dirt road, but it wasn't abandoned. It's still used by local farmers as it seems (the tracks gave it away 😉) and even you were able to walk on it. Poor dirt road still serves a purpose, give iot some respect. 😋
The milestones were really fascinating. Made by an unknown stone mason centuries ago, but one can still read what he wrote on them.
🪨
To put the routes into another context it looks like you're going to have to map all the coaching inns in the area, a days ride away from each other, and have a pint in each one.
Thats a great point! What a chore than would be if one had to visit them all!
@@pwhitewick I certainly like a pint after a hard day travelling. I also wonder whether there any local renowned Highwaymen at the some of the time frames you were looking at.
@@lingerslongest A little further north, on the London to Bath Road, at Cherhill - the gang there had an unusual claim to fame. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherhill#The_Cherhill_Gang
Brilliant. These are getting better and better. Really enjoy finding out about this obscure stuff. 👍
Thank you
The map fragment you show at 7;50 is only about 5 miles from Salisbury . It’s Heale house and middle Woodford. The roads don’t make sense ! I grew up there.
The Dury one? Its a mess of roads there.
There is a spectacular walk long the ridge between old Sarum and Stonehenge. Go up the hill opposite the heale house entrance ( the trees are marked on the map and are still there) . Then turn north to Stonehenge. I’m not sure there is a public right of way along the whole route.
The path from Stonehenge south little bit west is dead straight for about five fields then peters out - it then is dead straight along the top of hooklands plantation until there is a view of Salisbury cathedral - it peters out there too.
Paul what a lovely hike well worth spending a few days walking the road end to end as we love walking on chalk high up 😊😊
Now I am intrigued... Somewhere before I have come across The Old Slow Coach Road. Wish I could remember where 🧐
Very interesting and enjoyable story. Perhaps the road became bogged at one time and people traveled around the back of the milestone so much it became the established route. The modern version of course change can be seen at that milestone which has two parallel sets of tracks.
Paul, you thought of investing in a cheap hand held scanner for deciphering difficult to read marks on stones? I’m considering doing so to save having to 3D map by camera.
And thanks for calling out Imber. I first went there on exercise 30 years ago. A sad place.
Thanks, hadn't considered one... was tempted to bring some crayons and paper though!
Really wild that those milestones have been sitting there in the countryside largely undisturbed for over 250 years. I know that's not very old by European standards, but they're not exactly massive objects and it wouldn't be crazy for them to have been taken and reused in some way over the centuries, especially in the era before people cared about historical preservation.
Absolutely yes. I am really surprised so many on this route remain.
It’s been over 40 years since I’ve been to England.
I don’t know why but I just love your stuff.
I hope the Mrs is doing well.
Take care
Near me there used to be a turnpike cottage on an interchange but it were demolished in the 1960's when the road was widened.
That's a shame. Wish we could keep these historic buildings!
Such a pretty part of the UK. And so much history in that area. Great in that weather.
I love that this video advocates - If you have a big mug of tea, a reliable broadband connection, and a free afternoon. You can plan out and visit all these wonderful places, without having to venture out into the wilds and the unforgiving outside world 🤪
Almost correct.... almost!.... Coffee.
Thank you, fascinating. It just adds to the mystery, it wasn't really replaced a different major route, it wasn't replaced by canals, or railways. Why does Salisbury Plain seem to be inimical to formal transport routes? It is not just the Army since much of this predates the MOD take over. Perhaps one day we will find out. Well done on the video, really enjoyed it.
Thanks Chris. Yup remains a mystery. Perhaps it's just the relative height!?
Very interesting Paul
Those milestones were put up to last.
Yes they are
Fascinating stuff! could watch you talking about these all day long!
Just saw Imber in Recent "Hidden London " transport video about a yearly trek there to ride on buses for the "79A".
Fascinating subject and superb production. Great work
Thanks for this Paul very interesting, love the way you put it all together eliminating bit by bit.
Thanks Andy.
Great video Paul, that is some seriously remote looking countryside for the south of England.
Nice one...I thought it would be about the Old Marlborough Road. I never knew about this one...but it looks like most of it is Byway Open to All Traffic, so I'll explore it on my motorcycle one of these days.
You know we love a mystery 👍
Your videos are always extremely high quality and very professional. Fascinating, thanks.
Really enjoyed this one Paul being so local for me-I have also learned from this-Thank you
The road follows the highest Land because back then land drainage hadn't been implemented, meaning in the winter all lower roads were flooded.
Hence, the kings highroad or kings highway.
Growing up in the UK was always heading off on Rambles into the lake district and the Pennines, I miss those walks as history was always evident, stumbled on the occasional henge or Roman wall, Your walks and the history revealed is why I enjoy your channel so much,
The case of the vanished road - another intriguing mystery. I suspect the answer lies in your concluding remarks about the availability of alternative faster routes along the lower valleys, which speeded-up the 'old slow coach' somewhat. But, it still leaves the question of its official closure in 1959 - by whom and for what reason - bureaucratic delay by the army, perhaps. Very interesting and enjoyable video. Thank you.
Well done Paul. Another well researched vlog. Very interesting. Thank you for all your hard work.
Very interesting Paul, often overlooked historic features !
Fascinating Paul, another good bit of research and a wander. I love the mile marker stones seeming "lost" amongst the fields. Cheers, Warren :)
This was riveting. Well done! What a great piece of detection work. Everything you could have asked for :)
Thanks Barbara. Glad you enjoyed it.
On Langbar Moor, a few miles north of Ilkley, there stands a stone milestone. It's a much taller stone than the ones you showed us today. It has the distances to Skipton and Knaresborough. There's no trace of an actual road. It's not on the route of the Roman road between York and Ilkley either. I have always wondered when the route was in use and when the mile stone was erected. 😊❤😊
I think there were more Roman/Pre Roman routes around than we know about and with changes in agriculture and mining say have changed over the years
@highpath4776 This is very true. There is technically a Ford over/through the River Wharfe between Otley and Pool in Wharfedale, but it fell out of use a century ago. There was another downstream of Pool in Wharfedale at Castley, also long disused. They had probably been used from at least Roman times, if not before.
Your timing with uploads and me hiding from the boss from the toilet is cracking. Another insiteful video with a beautiful story. Keep it up
Pleasure to help!
I'm not sure hiding the toilet from the boss is a long term solution...
@@wessexdruid7598 haha that is a typo worth leaving 🤣
You mentioned Chain Drove. It made me wonder about the original Trig Point. I believe that Salisbury was used as the starting point for stretching a chain for about 20 miles to make the first side of a triangle as the baseline for all the trig points across the country. Could that have been the route used. From it Ordnance Survey maps were first drawn.
Ah yes, thats Sarum to Amesbury. (Gun end of base on the old maps).
Paul, perhaps an idea for a future show. I recall reading about how news flowed in the Middle Ages and before. As people walked tracks and trails, they would see someone on another track nearby and there was time to share a shouted comment or news. Thus, news spread quite quickly. So, proclamations posted in major towns were sufficient for that to be spread widely and quickly.
Brilliant!!!
Sarum was a good book.
Completely agree. Read it about 25 years ago now!
I guess both Bath and Sarum would have been important settlements in Roman times, a period which the ridgeways would have predated. I wonder just how old the Old Slow Coach route really was.
Another fine video this day. Always understandable to understand because of your lengthy explanations. Always look forward to them. Hello to Rebecca and enjoy your week ahead Paul. See you on the next! 🇬🇧🙂👍🇺🇸
This is so Romantic. I mean in the true meaning of that word. Not kissy-kissy stuff. Its good for our souls that there are still these links to our ancient past,of whatever era. Not everyone wants to inhabit a mediocre suburb environment in which Dominos and McDs are the height of culture. Or even if we do,some of us love to know that this road was once a lane known to be infested with footpads,that funny bend in the road was where a farmyard wall was prior to 1880 when that terrace of houses was built,and that 1970s estate was built on the site of the old Vicarage,the church of which was built circa 1820 from Queen Annes Bounty.
What a great detective story. Thanks
great video again Paul, i really enjoyed this one again , well done and thank you 😊
Cheeeers Davie
Thanks again Paul for another fascinating video, this is just up the road from me,must get my walking boots on !
Have fun!
The Turnpike house between Edington and Steeple Ashton always struck me as odd, lived in Dunge on the Edington to West Ashton road, another strange little hamlet with a moat at one of the farms there
Hope you're ankle is better soon Paul.
Thank you. Much better a week or two on. Ouch!
@@pwhitewick you need a close friend to rub it with care.
Your videos are always fascinating and entertaining. Thank you, they really make you think.....
Your conclusion from the old maps that the road had been abandoned isn't borne out by the maps. The maps show that the road was an unfenced minor road or tracknot abandoned. The NLS maps do have keys on them
I'm not so sure though. I did note the key, but many basic footpaths have the same markings as that "road".
@pwhitewick Paths are a single chain line, unfenced roads are a pair of parallel chain lines. And on the 1913 map shows parallel chain lines heading roughly north-west from Serrington past Yarnbury Castle.
Excellent so fascinating.
Over a thousand turnpikes to Salisbury? Hard to believe.
Haha... I had worried myself that I needed a comma there!
Great find
Sunday evening treat 🙂 Thank you Paul.
My pleasure!
Thank you!
Great video Paul
is the road really a route between Sarum and Trowbridge? Even though the milestones are marked to Bath this route would not be the preferred one going onwards but rather used as shorter route to the next market town. Some of these olds Wilts fella were averse from leaving the county. Interesting video this week Paul, keep it up!
Thank you. I think the point of the route really wasn't speed. Safety and potentially easier on the wheel. As time went on faster routes became more practical and this became redundant.
Bath To Salisbury took the same time by local bus, national express coach , or post SandD closure by rail (it was a query I got in a travel agent I worked at once)
Its not a well connected route I guess.
@@pwhitewick they actually wanted to go from Swansea to Bournemouth but Bath- Salisbury was one of the required legs of all three journeys.
I've driven along that road in my chariot !! And when we hit a bump I woke up !
Solid! Thanks.
Cheers
Thanks Paul
Paul: does excellent research about abandoned stuff
Also Paul: abandoned th
At my boarding school in the 1960's, our name for people who lagged behind on walks and by extension with homework assignments was "slow coach".
Slow Coach was the name of the tortoise in Bill and Ben (First aired on the BBC about 1954)
@@highpath4776 Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men. 👍
Flobalop.
Likewise!
Very interesting - a regurgitated ridgeway!
1700s would roughly have been when Ralph Allen was digging all the limestone out of the ground to build Bath. Although he died in 1764.
I for one would like to see a story about the village of Imber.
Might do the Imber Bus this August!
Great video and investigative work - I'm just wondering what that blue stuff, that seems to be in the sky above your head, is? Up here in the north we only get grey layers. 🤣🤣
The high ground made me think strategically- you've greater control of the field. A valley would probably have greater vegetation to possibly hide highwaymen, and swooping down upon prey is tactically sound, and ancient. Were highwaymen a local problem during the early 18th Century? It was just what came to mind. Wonderful investigation nonetheless. Thank you.
I think towards the start of the 19th C it was less of a problem, which would almost coincide with the end of this route.
@@pwhitewick Thank you. My thinking this way is why I'm. here.
There's no wisdom with age, but outliving half my birth cohort I've come to understand if I do thus- they will probably do this, that, or the other. Life experience counts, it's often a puzzle. Your methods of unravelling puzzles inspires me!
Another fine presentation
Thank you kindly
@@pwhitewick Paul, We miss your life partner, she's so funny.
@@user-rq7el8nh6q she's here.... often behind the camera
Robin Athill's "Old Mendip" sa ys that the Black Dog Trust was active between Warminster and Bath from 1752. It was clear that the more populous route was taken from Bath even though it involved horrendous hills into Bath. It was not till 1833 that the present A36 alignment north of Wolverton was planned.
Before the turnpikes, people would travel on the 'high roads' i.e. to routes that followed the ridges and/or high ground that avoided the wet and sometimes impassable lower lands. The turnpikes tended to be built for more direct travel often through lowland areas with a large cost of building bridges etc to provide all year round 'fast' transport routes. This case looks like someone tried to monetise a high road.
Thanks
An interesting one as I've got pictures of cast iron plates marking out the turn pike on the duel carriageway north towards Ormskirk, (A59) taken for Wigan and Liverpool archaeological society's.
Excellent. Are there any turnpike records, minutes of meetings etc as there are for in the Peak District, which might help?
Interesting great video
Very interesting, Paul. Could it have been as simple as another turnpike opened up which undercut this road?