Roman roads

On one of the very hottest days in the summer, Helen V. left the farmhouse for one of her long rambles in the forest, taking with her, as usual, some bread and meat for lunch.

She was seen by some man in the fields making for the old Roman road, a green causeway which traverses the highest part of the wood.

and they were astonished to observe that the girl had taken off her hat, though the heat of the sun was already tropical.

As it happened, a laborer, Joseph W., by name, was working in the forest near the Roman road, and at twelve o'clock his little son, Trevor, brought the man his dinner of bread and cheese, After the meal, the boy, who was about seven years old at the time, left his father at work, and, as he said, went to look for flowers in the wood.

And the man, who could hear him shouting with delight, his discoveries felt no uneasiness.

Suddenly, however, he was horrified at hearing the most dreadful screams.

I'm talking about supposedly is a Saxon forest.

And there's a Roman road that runs through the forest.

So we're on a path from Cambridge to London.

And this is one of the Roman roads that went from Cambridge to London all the way through.

So this is an old, old, old road.

But the trees look no more than 200 years old.

And then there's nothing.

And then five square kilometers down the road, there's exactly the same again.

So we've got the Tame and the Anchor.

And then we've got Watling Street as well, the A5 Road, Roman Road.

So a lot of trade came through Tamworth, which is why we were a big... well with capital mercia

yeah it was interesting as well that you mentioned there's no moat but you were a lot of the you were protected really by rivers as well weren't you

Some of those roads are still in use today.

It's one of the signs of the greatness of Rome that until about the 1500s in Europe, the best roads 1500 years later were Roman roads.

I've walked the Appian Way a little way myself.

They were made to last, and they did.

That was why, by the way, the United States established our interstate system under General Dwight Eisenhower when he was the president to give easy speed of transportation for the American army.

Exactly the same mentality.

What are the Roman roads, just on a basic understanding, what are they made of?

Well, they were great engineers.

But he did a very wonderful thing,

and the Roman road has run there for fifteen hundred years.

His creation.

Someone must have hit upon that precise line, and the reason for it.

He builds from time to time in one rare place and another, and the bridge always remains a sacred thing.

Moreover, the bridge is always in peril.

The little bridge at Paris, which carried the Roman road to the island, was swept away continually, and the bridge of stains that carried the Roman road from the great port to London was utterly destroyed.

Bridges have always lived with fear in their hearts, and if you think this is only true of old bridges, individual, have you forgotten the Tay Bridge with the train upon it, or the bridge that they were building over the St. Lawrence some little time ago, or the bridge across the Lior where those peasants went to their death on a Sunday only a few months since? Carefully consider

So what were they trying to do that day? Well, it was the Australian Corps, and in particular their 32nd Division and the 1st Division under a Major General Glasgow, which was to carry out this operation on the day in three phases.

This area is, I don't know, 10 miles maybe, east of Amiens, along the Roman road that leads from Amiens to Albert.

And the enemy had occupied this area since the 12th of August.

And they started to build trenches again here on the rise of a ground.

and see the landscape we did but let's just go back got a bit more information more detailed information here about what actually happened on the ground and once again it's taken from the Australian official history written by Charles Bean.

It says this.

The 2nd Brigade, attacking astride the Roman Road, had the heaviest task that morning.

Along the whole front of the left battalion, the 5th, the slope to the valley was covered by St Martin's Wood, three quarters of a mile wide and in parts a mile deep.

When, was it then, was Theo, or was it, no, Todd being interviewed in the police station afterwards, and you were left, it was kind of left to your own imagination, has he actually killed him or not? That's a really good chat, actually.

And also, all the stuff surrounding the big tram crash anniversary thing, Like, the mockumentary, the fake news broadcasts, that's all, like, found footage kind of stuff that goes along...

Oh, you don't agree with that?

Yeah, no, no, I do, I do.

So I have a sleeve tattoo.

It is an old Roman road running up into an old Roman arch.

And at the bottom of the road, it says, But God.

And right above the But God, it has a hammer and crucifixion nails.

You've got...

Wolverton which is a Victorian railway town because Milton Keynes is on a big railway line that goes from London north and then also Stoney Stratford which is this lovely Georgian coaching town because the other thing that Milton Keynes is on is the Roman Road Watling Street so this was like one of the first stops out of London on your stagecoach where you were like oh okay we've got to cross a river we've Got across the river.

So it sort of grew up as a lovely coaching town because everyone kind of had to stop overnight there because everyone was knackered from their long journey from London by that point.

So let's go back to the beginning of Milton Keynes and almost a little bit before.