| Transcript |
| · | 8000 MileStones |
| 0:00 | · | [Music] |
| 0:03 | · | it's said that there's over 8,000 Roman Milestones that remain today in what was |
| 0:09 | · | the entire Roman Empire but here in Britain only 95 have ever been found with maybe a dozen more |
| 0:16 | · | recorded but now lost all those 95 the vast majority are in museums which is great but |
| 0:23 | · | only 95 surely there's more than that so where are the Roman milestones and is it possible to |
| 0:30 | · | find one the vast majority of my life I've been walking and cycling old routs a fascination with |
| 0:37 | · | the landscape and how it shaped the lives of those that walked it before me lately I've |
| 0:43 | · | been wondering how I should spend my time I'm not getting any younger I don't get me wrong I |
| 0:49 | · | love this film making journey I feel like I'm doing my bit for sure but what if I discovered |
| 0:56 | · | something what if I found something that no one had recognized before |
| 1:02 | · | me and what if that Discovery offered something to this community something |
| 1:07 | · | would leave my mark on the world you see the meaning of life is to score a |
| 1:11 | · | victory for Humanity however small that may be so let's go find A Roman [Music] |
| 1:21 | · | Milestone this is Salisbury plane and I'm now walking part of a 250y Old Turnpike Road well |
| · | The Milestones |
| 1:31 | · | actually that is debated but either way it's a 250y old road now this abandoned route went |
| 1:38 | · | from B to Salisbury it was called The Old Slow Coach now just up ahead I'm expecting to find |
| 1:47 | · | an old Milestone if we look at the old Maps well it should tell us that b was in that direction 23 |
| 1:54 | · | mil and ahead of us in that direction would have been serum or Salisbury at 13 mil um that's it's |
| 2:02 | · | a bit of a muddy Trek here it is look at this okay so can't see any rot on this side but if |
| 2:11 | · | we have a look around here to the back we can see on this 250-year-old uh Turnpike Milestone |
| 2:18 | · | we've got 13 from sarum I can't really make out the rest but it should say 23 uh from Bath great |
| 2:26 | · | stuff well we found this Turnpike Milestone now shouldn't this be relatively easy for the Roman |
| 2:32 | · | Milestone I presume they're on all the old Maps just like this one and they're everywhere in fact |
| 2:40 | · | with 10,000 Miles of Roman roads in the UK in theory maybe just maybe there were 10,000 Roman |
| 2:49 | · | Milestones so the only other thing we need to consider is the distance of a Roman mile |
| 2:56 | · | you see today's mile is 1,690.34 Metres now the Romans had that down to 1,000 Milli ,1,000 Paces |
| 3:06 | · | now that equates to 1,480 M so slightly less let's factor that in let's crack on and find some Roman |
| 3:15 | · | Milestones. okay so I gathered a whole bunch of images or at least sketches of Roman milestones |
| · | What am I looking for? |
| 3:24 | · | and it turns out we have quite a range of shapes and sizes to consider anything from |
| 3:29 | · | UPR right pillars to pillow shaped rectangular rocks and that potentially makes things a |
| 3:35 | · | little bit trickier we'll come back to that shortly I've traveled to a place near Calleva |
| 3:40 | · | Atrebatum a major Roman settlement now that settlement is mentioned three or four times |
| 3:47 | · | in What's called the antonine itineries which are like root Maps um they guide you from town |
| 3:54 | · | to town There's very little evidence that remains sort of around today that can help |
| 3:59 | · | us with the journey but I think the Antonine Inters might well be one of [Applause] them |
| 4:07 | · | now Calleva Atrebatum has five major routes heading off in each Direction and lo and |
| 4:13 | · | behold we have a potential Milestone on the OS map it's marked IM short for impor imp impor |
| 4:23 | · | impor okay we're just about here on on site um about 100 yard or so away it's on a main |
| 4:34 | · | road now I don't I don't claim to have found this one because it does appear on a map but judging |
| 4:42 | · | by the pictures and that I've seen the Google Images well it looks like we're in for quite a |
| 4:47 | · | treat okay here it is now this is the first Roman Milestone I've ever seen in situ this is |
| 5:00 | · | a big tick for me but something's not quite right because well firstly we aren't near a Roman Road |
| 5:08 | · | the nearest road is maybe 800 M north of here and more importantly we have no Latin inscriptions on |
| 5:16 | · | this one absolutely no indication this was ever Roman so what exactly is going on here it turns |
| 5:22 | · | out that antiquarian William stukeley decided that this was indeed Roman despite the fact that it had |
| 5:29 | · | no Roman inscriptions and it's not on a Roman Road quite some distance from One OS got excited back |
| 5:36 | · | in 1838 and stuck it on the map and it remains there to this day so now we know what we're |
| 5:43 | · | looking for pretty much anything at all shape and sizewise let's knuckle down what's next in this |
| 5:50 | · | Quest okay so before we start hunting on the ground because yes I am hunting on the ground |
| · | Red Herrings |
| 5:59 | · | shortly let's have a look at one that was found in Northwest Hampshire in a ditch by the side of |
| 6:05 | · | a country road literally just here well on the edge of the field there it was found next to a |
| 6:12 | · | Roman villa now that's great because it's safely now in Winchester Museum and we have an image |
| 6:18 | · | of it so we know exactly what we're looking for when we're trying to identify a Roman Milestone |
| 6:25 | · | kind of now that the issue we have here is that not only does this Roman Milestone not contain |
| 6:34 | · | any miles it's also three miles or so from the nearest Roman Road now that's not to say that |
| 6:40 | · | there weren't any miles on it and it's also not to say that it wasn't moved at some point |
| 6:45 | · | but being found next to a villa you'd assume it was in situ it does raise a few question |
| 6:52 | · | marks right I think if I'm going to start taking this this seriously I need to do two |
| · | THE Map |
| 7:01 | · | things both of which revolve around a map I love a good map and the goal remains to find |
| 7:08 | · | a Roman Milestone so let's plot every Roman Milestone on a map all those that have been |
| 7:14 | · | found in this country these are taken from the rib databased Roman inscriptions now I |
| 7:21 | · | have plotted them across the entire country in green to indicate their found location okay uh |
| 7:28 | · | there aren't that many right let's focus down south my immediate sort of travel distance and |
| 7:34 | · | let's plot as well the major Roman settlements I'll put those in a kind of a house shape in |
| 7:40 | · | purple now secondly if I find the center of the Roman towns or settlements I can |
| 7:45 | · | then plot every 1,480 M along a Roman Road and find the spot where the Roman Milestones should |
| 7:52 | · | have been now I say the center of the Roman towns as opposed to the gates for a specific |
| 7:58 | · | reason I'll come back back to that later let's get [Music] plotting let's get hedge |
| · | The Search |
| 8:12 | · | [Music] diving there's probably only about two or three decent studies or books to help you sort |
| 8:29 | · | of interpret Roman Milestone certainly in this country there's a 1975 study done on the geology |
| 8:36 | · | of the stones which is great there's also another study done on African uh Milestones that was more |
| 8:42 | · | about what sort of Road you were on Military Road or more of a a civilian Roman Road built |
| 8:48 | · | a bit later a 2011 study by the Milestone society that was great because it gave a whole essence of |
| 8:56 | · | the Roman Milestones that had been found again 9 5 isn't a huge data sample so one of the conclusions |
| 9:02 | · | he drew was the uh the large rounded pillar type ones where they had have been on the main roads |
| 9:07 | · | and these smaller rectangular ones sort of led us to believe that they were on minor roads um or |
| 9:13 | · | near Villas or just anywhere okay so 95 Milestones have been found in this country in some form or |
| 9:20 | · | another the odds seem to be against us the Romans were here for what over 350 years or so and to top |
| 9:27 | · | all that off a quarter of those 95 Stones well they were found within 20 mi of Hadrian's Wall |
| 9:34 | · | now speaking of hadrian in this country at least it's possible that he was the person responsible |
| 9:39 | · | for their introduction strange notion but no examples of Roman Milestones dating prior to |
| 9:45 | · | hadrian have been found absolutely nothing at all this would have been the exact spot and with that |
| 9:50 | · | in mind only eight of those 95 Roman Milestones were dated prior to 240 ad now Roman Milestones |
| 10:00 | · | were often reused or recut upturned cut flat started again next there something else worth |
| 10:07 | · | considering too as we search well only eight of the 95 Roman Milestones actually have miles on |
| 10:15 | · | them now that's not to say they didn't have Roman Milestones on them maybe it was carved off at some |
| 10:21 | · | point or perhaps even painted on but only eight were used as Milestones potentially nothing here |
| 10:35 | · | impression this is completely |
| 10:37 | · | [Music] |
| · | The Find |
| 10:48 | · | futile [Music] |
| 11:04 | · | and then I remembered something a river a Ford a town close to a main road an old Route a |
| 11:11 | · | settlement north of the lead Road in Wilshire I've seen something that caught my eye someone |
| 11:16 | · | had mentioned something to me a stone by a Ford have I inadvertently known about a stone all along |
| 11:24 | · | was that a Roman Milestone so I found myself back on this route we've got War just that way there we |
| 11:30 | · | got Salisbury over there and the A36 runs between them this route however this small Road here runs |
| 11:36 | · | perpendicular to that it starts way up on Nook Camp lots of Roman fines all relating to sort |
| 11:43 | · | of grain production now I believe this to be a tertiary or secondary Roman route therefore it |
| 11:49 | · | went all the way that way up onto the lead road now just down there is a Ford and there was a |
| 11:55 | · | stone when we came here before I just discarded it did didn't even think anything of it but now I've |
| 12:01 | · | been researching all of this so much maybe just maybe this time I know what I'm looking for now |
| 12:08 | · | there's a lot more water now than there was when we came here last time it's been a very wet winter |
| 12:15 | · | and none of this was underwater last time so we may or may not find that our stone is completely |
| 12:22 | · | buried |
| 12:36 | · | I mean it's pillared shaped now we' we've got two distinctive types of Roman Milestones we've got |
| 12:43 | · | pillar ones now um they were reputed to be on the main roads according to um one particular Source |
| 12:50 | · | whereas the more rectangular ones were they were potentially on just sort of Villas and |
| 12:56 | · | and and tertiary routes so if it was going to be milestone here you'd expect it to be rectangular |
| 13:01 | · | but nevertheless this is bigger than I ever remembered this is um this is quite significant |
| 13:07 | · | so I took a couple of pictures and consulted some archaeologists unfortunately it seems the general |
| 13:12 | · | consensus is this is potentially a stone from a mill or perhaps even a facade on a building |
| 13:19 | · | long since discarded unfortunately we're going to have to get back to the drawing board the search |
| · | The Conclusion |
| 13:25 | · | continues |
| 13:30 | · | okay so today I didn't find a Roman Milestone and if I'm honest probably never thought I was |
| 13:36 | · | going to but perhaps in some ways this has helped me understand a lot more about Roman |
| 13:41 | · | Milestones their purpose the Milestones were perhaps that way of encouraging allegiance |
| 13:47 | · | to whatever Emperor was in the Reign at the time here in Britain thousands of miles from |
| 13:52 | · | Rome those stones would act as a great way of controlling the local population letting them |
| 13:57 | · | know who really is his boss to the glory of Emperor whitewick may his riegn last forever |
| 14:05 | · | oh and uh Winchester 10 miles that way mate and of course I've started that map so maybe just maybe |
| 14:12 | · | there'll be at some point a part two I'm sure if I keep searching then something will come up I've |
| 14:18 | · | been Paul I hope you've enjoyed my adventure as much as um I have frankly it's been it's |
| 14:24 | · | been a real learning curve as always I'll see you this time next week [Music] hey what keep walking |
| 14:37 | · | got |
By Free Republic | Created at 2024-09-29 03:22:49 | Updated at 2024-09-30 09:25:46
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