hi I am Paul and I'm Rebecca now for those watching this channel for a little while
the video title um probably may seem a little bit familiar but that's for good
reason because we've been here before to try and solve a Roman Road mystery in particular
Roman Road with a big Kink so why are we here again because not only have we solved
the Roman Road mystery but we've also found another kink we may well need this Rebecca
maybe a little bit context first yeah okay so this is a 60-second context and catch up here
here's the timer, lets go. Now by and large Roman Roads go in a straight line give or take the odd angle change in
Direction between two cities or two towns broadly speaking Roman Roads roads go in a straight line so
over in East wiltshire that's not the case on one particular Roman Road it takes an immediate
deviation from its line it takes a Four Mile Loop in a semicircle and then rejoins its original line
here heads up from the south takes a corner here heads Due West along the causeway that
corner is about 110 degrees now the issue I have with that is it's not very Roman
the Romans were meticulous planners if you were avoiding a hill or wet Valley or anything you'd
simply head to the apex of the deviation in a straight line that is the thing that's been
troubling us the most that phrase remember that phrase immediate deviation context over
during those first two videos we came to a theory and we
um we theorized that actually maybe the road didn't take the Kink first of all and maybe it
actually went straight on across the valley sa after a period of time they changed
the Route Around The Causeway so there are actually two routes indeed yes and
we actually found some evidence that this may well be the case it's just up ahead
so this is Grim's ditch the ditch we're walking in now now Grim's ditch predates anything Roman
by at least 500 years which is really useful now it actually runs or this section runs parallel to so you mean
the southern part of the Roman Road deviation which is really useful we'll come to that in
a moment going to Carry On walking along Grim's ditch uh with kind permission from the farm
manager of this area so we are trespassing but we're doing so with permission turns out
the farm manager is actually our biggest fan right Ed? Ed? now the reason why it is so useful
that is if the roman road did go straight on it would have cut straight through Grim's ditch
uh, Paul? what are you doing uh nothing nothing at all nothing nothing to see here whatsoever
so what we did is we took a walk along grim's ditch and tried to find if there was a gap in
it particularly in line with where Roman Road would have gone straight on and what we found
really sort of highlight and proved the theory so Grim's ditch now goes uh East West along in
front of me here and to my left we've found a cut in Grims it's a significant cut what looks like
a sunken Lane you're not going to see it today because it's late spring and there's vegetation
everywhere however I'll show you some winter shots which really do highlight exactly what we
found and gives rise to the justification that the sign is needed we found a Roman Road which
was post grim's ditch and cut across it down the hill so hold on I thought you said you'd
solved the mystery and you found another Kink that's true on both counts coming right up for
our lovely viewers oh they are lovely aren't they they really I love you yeah you're lovely
now one thing that we didn't consider in previous videos is the northern part of this
whole immediate deviation the top of the circle that heads back onto the straight line now as we
head around the causeway you can take a look at a couple of satellite images just to the north of
that immediate deviation and sure as you like you can see a few Crop Marks there but what about just
the south of this is there any indication that the Roman Road did go straight on here as with
the southern end heading into Grim's ditch well can we see anything on the ground here
okay before we do that let's tease you with something else oh is it time for the second kink it's time
for the second kink we'll come back to the first kink for northern part because it's
definitely worth it right so right now we're in the village of Marten it was just to our
left there now Marten is about I don't know two miles north of the original Kink how we
didn't spot this Kink I don't know however I've been trying to establish if it is a
Roman Kink and I'm pretty sure it's not but it would still be worth having a look exactly
why it does Kink because as far back as I can go in terms of mapping the village of Marten
had a big Kink but it's a square one square deviation and it's really been bothering me
for a while now why this does a squared Kink off of the main Roman Road it doesn't quite add up
you get the feeling we are being followed?
yeah babies now the thing is I want to go in that field because we can to show them
exactly why I think I've come up with a theory on why there was a kink okay this is going to
be interesting because they're all small cowstahts fine oooh they're a bit scared of us this is good Rebecca
they're perhaps more scared of us than they are we of them maybe don't show your fear okay okay
hi hi so are you sure this isn't Roman well you think it could be right because it looks like it
could be some kind of town or small settlement because it's square and it goes right over the
top of the original Roman Road but my thinking is we're too close to cunetio or Marlborough or
Mildenhall now look at what is right here in front of us some earthwork that's some
Earthworks and when you do a bit of research on those Earthworks you find out it's a moat
not only is it a moat but it was a castle or a fort like a like a late Saxon early um Norman uh
castle and moat so the theory is it could well be that what we're stood in right now is what
they used to refer to as a Kill Zone so around their Castle their moat their territory they had
to have a set distance around it that just so happened that that encroached on the Roman Road
so we were just walking before the cow field for The Big Field that we just walked
across right in the middle just been ploughed probably what maybe like a week or two before
probably just found this so we've marked the location that we found this on our
um like GPS thingy it's got the exact location so we'll pick it up because
it'll only get turned over again and again and again isn't it but I'm not an expert on
um Neolithic sort of tools but it looks like it's been worked lots lots and lots lots now that's
really interesting because just down here is a is a um Neolithic Burial Mound I say Neolithic probably
Bronze Age burial ground but nevertheless it all kind of fits together doesn't it
shh
it's we've been seen we've been seeing quick come on, don't run, don't run, but no
no they're running oh my God they're running
they're blocking the pathway Rebecca let's take a right
it's on the film so if you do anything criminal you'll be busted all right they are quite scared actually, and also playful
I think if you stand your ground they do stop. They can smell the fear rebecca
Alright.... as they kids would say... I nearly died.
[Music]. A Big Wow, Rebecca.
we've just met um Deborah and Howard yes lovely people absolutely lovely people we thought we'd
chance our arm we came to Beacon Farm Northern side of the original big Kink and we wanted to
trespass with permission into somewhere called maacoombe wood now Maccoombe wood would be in line
with the uh what we are going to call the original straight line Roman route so we
wondered if we could get there so we spoke to these lovely people on the farm just up there
and they were full of knowledge and history and enthusiasm and helped us go on this route we're
on now but we can now get to where we think if there's going to be some evidence on the ground
of a Roman Road that went in a straight line instead of taking the huge Kink we're gonna
find up here in the macoombe woods Maccoombe bottom I believe it's called however in the meantime I'm
now looking on where I think according to my maps you'd find the exact alignment of the Roman Road
behind me for the woods and straight across the valley in front of me that way if it had taken
that original route no evidence whatsoever on the ground not even a lump or bump here which
is a bit of a shame let's head into the woods from the top for one last ditch look [Music]
well we're now in the middle of those woods and we're trying to find obviously the roman Road
it would have gone perpendicular to these words Maccoombe bottom wood so we call them
down there to the drop towards the north is very steep so that tells us actually we're probably
not looking for a road in this traditional sense of Roman Road we're looking for a Terrace that
went down the side of the Hill very similar to the one on the south side of the uh the curve so
um these woods are a little bit older not huge though, there's kind of new conifers
in that back there a little bit older here but we don't know how old probably quite old because
it'stoo steep to plough, evidence of a Terrace would be good about now to prove or
help prove the theory or disprove it [Music] right now this is quite exciting we weren't
expecting to find this because they didn't really show up on lidar but we're on line with where the
Roman road should have gone I'm gonna turn the camera around I wanted to see Rebecca there in a
distance Rebecca do you want to point your arms in either Direction nope that's the way
we're facing there right yeah so you are in what is a big cutting yeah you can see yeah
if I go down here you can see the level of the route we have been walking along is there and all of us yeah we
should be a walk at this level but it goes down it goes up now that is on the exact alignment
doesn't doesn't show on this camera you just can't tell it doesn't show on any camera
the the the whole slope of here just disappears here it goes down there like that
but there you have a level that level should come across here it doesn't it dips right down
here and then back up the other side there so this slope here we walked along dips right down there
all right so that was better than what we expected a lot better we wanted to try and
find some evidence in this Woods which we'd hoped had been untouched for a long time of a an attempt
at Roman Road and I think that's probably what we had that's as best as we're going to get very very
similar to the southern end and to my mind that gives us a conclusion that they started to build
this and they built it over a number of years and they they headed their way down into the valley
that side and over there and then after a year or two years or three years of use maybe 10 years of
use they said this is definitely not the right way to do things the value is getting worse and
worse the roads are in worse condition there's an ancient track where that goes all the way around
the outside called Chute causeway whatever it's called why don't we just take that and this one
pretty quickly fell into disrepair and you're left with very very vague remnants that's why
you're not left with many remnants today that's why the lidar doesn't show up on any of the big
fields you see there's nothing no trace of it it's already been demolished sort of within
the decade of the Romans being here and we're left with just faint traces in the landscape now that's
my theory at least anyway I think it's a great Theory so hopefully you've enjoyed the tale of two
kinks in this Roman Road it's been fun because it always is when we do these sort of videos
um I'm gonna carry on doing a mix of short form and long form because that's what we
kind of like the most I think but if you want to become one of our patrons you do guarantee
yourself a weekly video Behind the Scenes me and Rebecca larking around unedited yeah to
say the least so uh from whitewick Terrace oh it's been a pleasure thanks for watching people
[Music]
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