Is the RIDGEWAY really 5000 years old?
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- Опубліковано 20 січ 2024
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Check out the following Ridgeway links:
Official Link: www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB...
Drone Footage ALL: / @hedleythorne
Welcome to this weeks video. We take a look at some of the stunning landscapes and ancient features along the famous Ridgeway. We also ask, how do we know that the ridgeway is 5000 years old? Its long puzzled me, so I thought I would take a look.
If you like what you see and would like additional behind the Scenes content. Please do consider the following links:
Patreon: / paulandrebeccawhitewick
UA-cam Members: / @pwhitewick
Credits:
All Drone Footage: / @hedleythorne
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 - Розваги
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The legend of Wayland's Smithy is that if you place a coin on one of the stones and leave your horse there overnight, in the morning the horse will have new shoes and the money will have gone. I cycled that part of the Ridgeway a few years ago, and stopped off there and left a few pennies on one of the stones. Back home a few days later, I noticed how worn my tyres were from off-roading, and then a friend coincidentally emailed to ask if I wanted some new tyres they couldn't use. Wayland's magic still works...
If I get there this summer I intend to leave some coins. I wont have a horse or a bicycle but I'm sure Wayland will know the appropriate action.
I love this story. Thank you for sharing 👌
No interest in Saxon colonial crap from north of the rhine
Although some might say that correlation doesn't equal causation!
What people tend to forget when walking long-range ancient trackways like The Ridgeway today, is that the countryside around would have looked a LOT different 5,000 years ago. Most of it would have been covered by the all-encompassing Wildwood, a complex and tangled mixture of trees, with a significant number of the trees either dead or dying through the ravages of wind, fire (lightning strikes) and flood.
Paths like The Ridgeway would have been meticulously cut through the Wood by our ancestors and maintained by passing travellers. Hill Forts like Uffington would probably have been welcome open areas for trading, rest and respite from the miles and miles of deep and dark woodland.
When the hills of Doggerland were hit by the wave, 8.5k yrs ago, many mammoth were swept into the sea, where their remains are still found today. If they behaved like elephants of today, our oldest trails and clearings in the forest need not have been Man-made.
Please look at bronze age deforestation and what not. I hope the subject interests you.
the people that ran those open areas would charge a toll of some kind
@@excession3076 quite my thoughts as well... it was a while ago when I did my degree and the image of Britain as one big forest into mediaeval times is somewhat fanciful. The bronze axe accelerated the deforestation started in the neolithic age, and it's the best farming land that would have been cleared first.
To my way of thinking the 'Wyld Wood' would have survived the longest in the heavier, boggy, clay soils of the valleys, while the drier downland would likely have been gradually cleared first. The 'hill forts' remain something of an enigma though, to me. I am always mindful of the dramatic licence Mortimer Wheeler employed to 'sell' archaeology, particularly with his excavations at Maiden Castle. Later work showed that the site was essentially abandoned some time in the C1st BC and there is little evidence to support the idea that any major siege by the 2nd Legion took place there. I've often wondered if the structures, at least the simple single ditch and rampart ones, more likely had their origins as over-night stock enclosures and camps for drovers and travellers. The lack of water at these sites would seem to preclude extended habitation due to the need to typically descend some distance down a steep incline into the valley to collect water and water stock.
Do we really know with any certainty, or are we still essentially clutching at straws? I suspect the latter is more likely the case and it is that which captures our imaginations and feeds our ongoing fascination with these sites and monuments. Maybe it is best that they remain enigmatic, for the sake of future generations so, they too, can enjoy the mystery as we do. 😊
Had fun taking the aerial shots, my favourite track as you know well!
I like the shot at 11.05, it's where my parents ashes are spread at Sparsholt firs. My Dad grew up on a farm there and he and my grandad farmed the fields on the right in the 1950s. I have my Blewburton hill canvas on my wall from your website.
Some really great clips there Hedley, well done!!
@@Zeebad_1st Sparsholt Firs is such a lovely area and how. Lovely that you grew up there. Glad you like the Blewburton picture!
@@davidberlanny3308 thank you David
really helped bring it to life
Maybe it went out into Doggerland. I like that thought.
Well.. thats such a good point. Why ever not!
Awesome video, not only is the Ridgeway deeply rooted in our national history, but I have spent many hours walking and cycling this route, from my childhood to more recent adventures. Loved the White Horse and Waylands Smithy bits!
Thank you. Really enjoyable to make this
Uffington is absolutely spectacular, it's one of my favourite places to wander, so much so I have the Uffington horse tattooed on my arm. Great video and I must explore more of The Ridgeway.
It's such an elegant and abstract horse. People could be forgiven thinking that it's a modern work of art.
@@affalaffaa That is an absolutely fantastic comment 👏
This video proves the well deserved 100k+ subs. Better than mainstream broadcasters, top notch, informative and inspiring to do more research if inclined (or visit)
Appreciate that
Excellent work Paul. Passed this on to an American niece asking for pre-Christian British history.
I was thinking that I have heard Americans talking in the same tones as Paul about N. American history but the dates were an order of magnitude younger on the East coast & another order of magnitude younger on the West coast.
I really upset some Vancouver Mounties when I asked for directions to the "Heritage Building".
I said "The signs point this way until the park keeper's shed, then point the other way on t'other side of the shed! Do you think someone's turned the signs around?"
They looked REALLY angry, they hissed "That shed IS the heritage building! It's from 1932!"
I apologised & scarpered. I'd been there two days & hadn't adjusted my "history clock" yet! 😳
Anorher vid packed with history, archeology and geography. You're lucky to live in a land that retains the signs and scars of people's past activities. And we are lucky that you step outside to find and film them even on a cold day!
That's the big frustration about archaeology - it can tell you the what, the how, sometimes the who but rarely can it tell you the why.
Excellent storytelling and photography as ever, and I have just noticed that you have reached 101K subscribers. Well done!
Incredible to have so many well preserved monuments on one route. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us!
Thanks for watching!
The hill forts may not have been occupied, but they are obviously defensive in structure. They may have been a trading spot in peaceful times but also a place where people could congregate in times of trouble, when neolithic peoples would have lived decentralized across the countryside. News of raiders/invasion/conflict would prompt people to gather there for safety and organization as needed
It's a lot easier to travel along ridges than through the ups and downs of valleys, river courses which can be quite difficult to traverse and exhausting
Nice, did a circuit from Avebury to Silbury Hill, West Kennet and The Sanctury last Friday. Given the recent rain, you can see why many of the ancient paths were on high ground.
Absolutely yep
I've walked sections of the Ridgeway over the years, most of it during military service as part of a Basic Fitness Test or for navigation exercises.
I have walked it with groups in latter years, and I'm pleased to say none of it was in the cold weather!
A great start to my week, thank you! I went to school in Wantage and recall (with no great delight!) the cross country runs up to Segsbury Camp, after which the school was named. I also recall spending the night at Waylands Smithy and, whilst we didn't see any horses being re-shod, it was one of the most spiritually 'thin' places I've ever been. Finally, those crop circles that were found close by where the ley lines cross in the 80's and made national news? Yeah, sorry about that!
hahaha... ooops
I've long considered many so called hillforts as being like motorway services, a chance to rest refresh and stock up every 2-3 days.
Probably quite expensive to use too.
This was a great video Paul, I have walked the Ridgeway 5 times from Ivinghoe to Avebury and have spent my whole life living under the shadow of the White horse.
There are three more Iron age forts that you missed, one is hard by the Ridgeway but is almost completely ploughed out now, "Rams hill", another lies close by to the North west of Uffington "Hardwell Camp" and a third lies about a mile due South of the Ridegway above Ashbury and close to Ashdown house "Alfreds castle".
You can't beat a bit of local knowledge:)
I'd love to walk its full length one day! I bet there is more than three that I missed ;-)
"Alfreds castle" rumour has it is that this is where King Alfred waited for the Vikings. The battle where he defeated has been suggested as taking place above Compton in Berkshire further to the East. The national trust property Ashdown Trust close by is worth a visit. Interesting history. Pete Townsend of the Who. Rents this as an out of London abode. With the the Odstone Coombes close to Ashbury in the vincity. Makes for a great place to go rambling. Varied landscape with miles of tracks.
Given the momumental scale of the earthworks shown, the people at the time each was built would have had a great capacity for moving through the landscape. Cherboug to Weymouth, 123 km, but the high point of the peninsula west of Cherboug is 185 metres high and likely visible 40 km away towards England. The high point on the isle of Portland is 150 metres high and is 106 km from the high point near Cherboug. Likely, for 70% of the journey from Cherboug to Weymouth, land was visible on a good day - 88 of 123 km (55 of 76 miles). Alderney, at 80 metres high, would have been a help with navigation. The Isle of Portland must have been an important place well back in history as it dominates the land for many miles around. The Ridgeway name is a clue that there are ridges, likely with less vegetation, that offered security and reasonable speed for a journey from western France deep into England. There is a high point north east of King's Lynn near West Newton.
The area of land beneath Uffington Castle was originally wetland/marshland. The farm land we see today comes after man drained the water away.
Lots of wetland in Essex was drained for farmland after the war. It's this the same?
Makes a great Sunday evening watching your videos looking forward to the next.
Awesome, thank you!
Loved this video, the aerial shots made it come alive. Been to a few of the places along the Ridgeway one hot summer walking along from a white horse to Avebury and back to the car on a tour of places of note.
If you like old stuff you need to come back to Dartmoor as we have plenty of railways that you have not visited and some stunning 6000 + year old building remains high on the moor with amazing views that need your storytelling skills.
I live near to Ivinghoe Beacon and always fancied wondering off down the Ridgeway. It will take me not to far from North Hampshire where I used to live.
Maybe one day if I can get back some of my youth.😅
Change is always possible! (Except from a vending machine...)
There is an iron age hillfort a few miles away from me (Sandpit Lane iron age fort in South Weald, and excavations found very little pottery where the ditches would have been (it still has the earthwork banks around parts of it). I came to the conclusion that it was build for trading markets, and it most likely would have been used for markets while it was being constructed.
They apparently found a lot of post holes from buildings within its structure when they scanned it.
If they only built most of these forts and hillforts from the iron age for trading, then trading must have had huge importance back then to go to all the efforts of building the huge earthworks, which must have taken a huge amount of time and manpower to construct.
Sandpit Lane fort is partially a hill fort as on it's western side there is banks running all along it, and on it's eastern side there is a reasonable sized bank. At its northern side it's like a flat plateau.
It's built on the havering ridge, which is where the Ice sheet ended. There are a few apparently victorian era 'gravel pits' nearby, with the biggest being right beside the forts north western edge. But I wonder if those gravel pits were also used by the forts builders to dig material to build the forts steep banks.
A small section of the fort is in Weald country park, with the majority of the fort being across the road with a cricket club and pitches within it. The main visible earthworks is within the park, but at the eastern side there is still visible and decently sized earthworks where the hill there undulates.
I’m pretty sure they were to help prevent cattle rustling, there is no reason to create such massive earth works for a market. They are defensive but not easy to defend, but the reason they are so large is to make it less easy for raiders to run off with your prize heard.
Some stunning photography
Many thanks!
Terrific Paul. So many truly wonderful links to the past all on one excellent video. Thank you for sharing it with us.
😊
Thanks, Pauline
Paul - the way you fell over at the beginning - do you have a Judo or similar background? Seriously, you fell perfectly with your head up and you didn't try to stick your arms out to "save" yourself.
Former Goalkeeper! 😊 (love that someone noticed).
Happy memories of walking days on the Oxfordshire and Wiltshire Ridgeway. Lunch stops amongst the beeches and thinking about what the ancestors would make of our "modern" world. Thanks Paul for taking me along with you.
Loved the passion you put into this one and the integration of so many significant places into one story.
Imagine what it might have been like to walk that route 5000 years ago.
Really well done. Have a great week!!
Thanks David.
The white horse was a symbol of the Atrebates tribe, as on coins found at Calleva. It is thought that the horse in the chalk may perhaps be a marker to show they were in control in the area.
Thank you for the walking tour, as always. Always a pleasure to see you and your videos. Hello Rebecca, and see on the next, Paul! 😊
The traditional eastern part of the route, beyond Ivinghoe Beacon, differs considerably from the line on yor map. In fact, it continues along the chalk scarp of the Chilterns and into East Anglia. Known as the Icknield Way, it is a similar network of routeways studded with ancient sites (burials, hill-forts and ditches). Once you get beyond the south-eastern corner of the Fens, the alignment either fans out or turns north across the Breckland to North Norfolk, this section being known as Peddars Way.
Reminds me of a walk I did as a student in 1975. The section from Swindon to Avebury. I’ve never forgotten the magical descent into the great stone circle. Thanks for a great episode Paul!
Top video, Paul. The Ridgeway is one of our most enigmatic national trails. So fortunate to live local to it, White Horse Hill and Waylands Smithy are favourite walks for me and the dog!
Couldn't agree more!
Nice video my man
At one time (though not now) I used to live in the village of Pitstone, from the living room window I had an uninterrupted view of Ivinghoe beacon.
At the time I lived in Vicarage Road, at one end of this road, was the village center, and the main road through the village which was the Lower Icknield Way, at the other end of the road it made a junction with the Upper Icknield Way.
At that point they're just roads, nothing more or less than that
The pathway roughly followed the upper Icknield Way, I should imagine most walkers were glad when they crossed the A41, and took to the hills, leaving the main roads behind (you mentioned the Gryms Ditch, as a child I lived in the village of Potter End and well would you believe it Gryms Ditch crossed the golf course not a half mile from my house, the golfers didn't like it because they had to leave it alone, as it was a National Monument, they wanted to landscape it and make it look what they thought was,-- "nice"--)
Another Brilliant video Paul, there is another indication that the Ridgeway could be even older than the 5000yrs as Geologists,and Archiologist think this footpath may have a connection with Ancient Europe when we were connected by the piece of land that once joined us to Europe about 8000yrs ago known as Doggerland they think Ancients could have used this footway ,maybe why the Ridgeway has so many Ancient monuments along its way as being very important to them up until the landslide that caused the land to drop below sea level and surrounding area to flood.
This is Sooooo beautiful ... ! 🎉
Fantastic video. I cycled King Alfreds Way 3 years ago and on the stretch that is the Ridgeway you just feel you are riding through ancient history. To be using a route that has been in constant use for 5000 years is mind blowing. Alas we didn't have much time to stop and explore. Maybe next time.
hello again Paul , my Sunday is now complete , another very interesting video, great drone shots Hedley , really well done and thank you 😊
Informative and well produced Paul, as usual! Just a small point, there's no 'A' in Century!
Oooops
I'd always hoped to walk the Ridgeway. Thank you for doing it for me.
Very well put together and filmed, Paul. I expect the Ridgeway would have formed as a route thousands of years ago, in the same way that deer use the same routes through a forest. It was never written down or quantified by the people who used it and its route probably changed over the thousands of years.
What a beautiful film,a beautiful landscape a sacred landscape. I tried to visit Waylands Smithy around midsummer 2023. I walked miles along a track from the village of Woolstone. At that point there seem to be several diverse tracks . I kept passing signs saying to Waylands Smithy but never got any closer. Then i felt an illness attack coming on me so i had to ring a friend to come rescue me. Thank goodness for mobile phones. He actually located the place and went there but i was too ill to leave the car. He drove us home past quite a few barrows and told me he had slept in the monlight on every barrow in Wiltshire,but thst was many years ago,when we were all young. Possibly after consuming a quantity of cider. Im hoping to get to Waylands Smithy this year. X fingers.
Thx for another great video - When we walked the Ridgeway it blew our mind just thinking about whose feet had taken those same steps through the millennia! It’s truly epic but so rewarding too .. Thx for raising its profile …
Great video Paul, you really caught the spirit of the route.
Many thanks!
I live about 5 miles from the white horse and have been along virtually every road below it to try to get a decent picture of it.... but the only way seems to be from the air as you did!
I used to go for Sunday walks on the Bedfordshire end of the Ridgeway in my 1980s childhood. I had no idea of its history. Thank you.
One of your best Paul.
Love the romance of the Ridgeway and these sites. Thank you.
wasn't Wayland Smithy Mr. Burns PA in the Simpsons ?
Nice one Paul, thanks
05:45 - look like it follows the chalk line border.
An amazing vlog. I am blown away by what you have produced for us. I just did t know all those places were there. Well done. Keep going please
Hello Fresh is brilliant - no waste, no shopping!
Absolutely agree. Big fans here.
Nice video! I live near the Ridgeway and the way the views stretch out to the north across the vale always amaze me. It's like the world opens up before you.
Brilliant video and great to see white horse hill somewhere I've lived near my whole lide5
Thanks for the video, these places are so special.
Fun fact.. Kate Bush,s video of "cloudbusting" was filmed at Uffington. The wife and I spent a lovely sunny Sunday there spotting the locations and taking " then and now" pics. Also we have been using Hello Fresh for a few years now and genuinely love the meals. Oh yes... another Great video too ;-)
I really love your videos. I'm a big fan of landscape and archaeology. So I get the same vibe form your vides as I do from old Time Teams. Just makes me want to get out there. Thank goodness we're emerging from Winter now. I always associate archeology with summer and long days. So it's really wistful watching material shot in summer in winter. It helps that yours seem to be more or less real time!
I'm really curious though as to the logistics of your videos. Presumably you didn't do the whole way in one go? So do you arrange to meet a driver?. Do you just park up, shoot some footage, then loop back and move to the next spot? It's just really impressive how it all comes together.
Exceptional content!!
Thanks for putting Avebury and the Icknield way into perspective. And the Ridgeway
Lovely walk, very good provocation, standing back to get the wider viewpoint is always a good exercise, and one the professional historians are often too frightened? to take. Glad you survived the cold.
It was a close call!
some expeert digging there Paul. Some say it was orginally in use when Britain was still attached to Europe (NL)
Walked a section many years ago. Just off the A34. Great to hear some history. Especially about the Iron Age.
I'm always impressed at how many structures have maintained for thousands of years. Considering the long and expansive history of the British Isles, you would've thought that the locals to have pillaged the stone, artifacts or even the soil for use. Yet they've left them mostly undisturbed.
Congratulations, Paul, on a very well done video. Excellent production quality.
You should give all the crews a raise! :)
Haha.... I will! Apart from Hedley... he needs to work much harder.
I enjoyed that, Paul! You covered some ground there. The Ridgeway is a very special route and I would love it if one day, archaeologists could prove the prehistoric origins of stretches on the current line. I don’t think that’s been done, but I could be wrong about that.
You’re a brave man showing your search history, but it was great to spot my channel in there!
Thanks Paul really enjoyed this one, I cycled the Track last year towards the end of April and camped just outside Goring on Thames the temperature really dropped woke up really shivering thought I had Hypothermia but I was just being melodramatic.
I can't believe that those hill-forts were used for trading... Take potatoes for example. Would a trader bring half a ton of spuds to the top of a remote hill, and then would a hundred housewifes each carry away 10 pounds of them down the mountainside. Surely the market would be located in the centre of population, on the flatlands.
btw.. We had a mountain bike event in that area, one of the checkpoints was in the horses eye, although we didn't realise it was that at the time.
I've pondered this question a few times myself. The dating is always indirectly through places the route passes near which makes me a little sceptical at times.
There are ancient trackways, like the sweet track and one in Plumstead that do have accurate dating evidence.
Great video. love the transition on how you fell at 0:35... even know it not fun falling but a really interesting video.
Neat huh.... 😊
Good video Paul. I like how you layout your story board! 🇨🇦
Many thanks.
Congratulations on reaching 100K subscribers Paul and Rebecca
Thank you very much!
Another lovely video, thank you. One thing I found about "Hello Fresh" was a large amount of packaging with every delivery. Beyond ingredients, the extra foam for insulation and resulting bigger box seems excessive and unsustainable. I found "Hello Fresh" food options, ordering, and delivery quite good.
Good video Paul. I visited Uffington Castle for the first time the year before last, a lovely place. There are many other ridgeways across central-southern England which are worth walking but perhaps none with such a wealth of important prehistoric sites.
Thoroughly enjoyed this journey today. I follow along on Google Maps. I also found it interesting that this pathway found us intersecting the Roman road you traveled some weeks ago.
Looking forward to your next offering!
Loved this one m8 🙂
Wonderful, good work Paul.
Avebury, my area, have explored all those sights many times. Great video Paul.
Walked that trail about 3 years ago. A nice stroll passing a lot of horse trainers land if I remember rightly. This brought back things I'd forgotten, cheers.
Really enjoyed this video. I was brought up in the 1950s in Didcot by parents who loved going on picnics to places near the Ridgeway in both Berkshire (the original "boot shaped" county as it existed before 1974) and Wiltshire. After getting married in 1972 we lived in Wantage and continued to visit all the places you featured. There is also the Icknield Way which parallels some of the Ridgeway and was a shorter route but only useable in summer as it is at or below the spring line and therefore passed through boggy land at other times of year. I lived in Wantage and then Grove until 2010 and therefore know very well the route and remains of the Wilts & Berks canal and the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton railway with which I have family connections as my grandfather became Station Master at Upton & Blewbury from 1916 and later at Compton from where he retired in 1941 to live in Blewbury.
Great stuff. The Ridgeway used to be one of favourite walking routes 30 years ago when I lived in Reading. Walking through the snow in winter with not a soul in site for miles with just the wind howling through the tree clumps . The archeological sites are amazing and eerie and the views from the path over the valley below are stunning.
I am very lucky that I live so close to the southern end of the Ridgeway. In fact the reason I moved to this area nearly fifty years ago was that I was fascinated by Silbury Hill and the mystery surrounding it and so many other ancient sites in Wiltshire. This smashing video brought so much of it back for me.
A nice take on the essence of the Ridgeway, Paul. For all the academic assertions I am always pondering on just what we don't know and all those things potentially under our feet, yet to be discovered :-)
Another interesting video. Loving the music too.
Awesome, thank you!
Great video, I feel inspired to visit.
When I saw the title, I thought you were going on Ridgeway Hill near Weymouth, Dorset.
Really liked this one, have walked/driven/cycled pretty much all of it over the last 40 years its great to see you enjoying it and to witness where the great tumble of Thorne occurred.
Really interesting, love the Ridgeway, in its widest sense not just the National Trail. Lovely images of the Uffington area. Thank you.
Many thanks!
Yay, Avebury! Loved being there back in June! Very glad it wasn’t bitter cold, too!
Very interesting video with some great drone footage along the route. I suppose that ancient travellers would have joined - and left - the Ridgeway at various points, particularly if they were engaged in trade, or moving livestock. Do you know anything about the coastal ports at either end - in Dorset and Norfolk?
Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant video. I love all those old cherished places all over Europe. My dream is to visit them all.. one day. But I don't even manage to visit them all in Germany alone. 🤣
I'm looking forward to the next video.
And I agree with simon, that transition was unexpected but funny. ^^
Shout when you do come over!
@@pwhitewick I will ❤
Fantastic educational content. Worth the time spent watching it. Thank you.
great info
Glad it was helpful!
I used to love the view from Ivinghoe beacon. Felt so strange not seeing the cooling towers at Didcot. They always seemed to be seen a long way around the ridgeway.
Great adventure Paul,i couldve watched that for another hour at least.
Thankyou
Thank you for the video Paul it really was an enjoyable journey down memory lane. I walked the Ridgeway in the opposite direction as a teenager (over 40 years ago!) and hadn’t realised just how ‘new’ the official trail was when we walked it.
Very new! It seems.