Transcript
Chapter 1: Hello There
Well, hello there. We meet again. In a very few moments, you are going to see an antiquity that, to the best of my knowledge, has never been seen on camera before. It dates back to the 13th or the 14th century, but it stands adjacent to a nearly 2,000-year-old Roman road that is derelict and lost. It’s an evocative Christian wayside cross. Very, very rare. Now, this shows on the ordinance survey map, but it is miles from any form of public footpath or public access. It’s on a private estate, but we have secured permission with some conditions to visit it. And that is what you’re going to see next after this title sequence. Got to do that first, but then you’ll see it.
Chapter 2: Titles
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Chapter 3: Medieval Wayside Cross
And there it is. Absolutely stunning. I have never been able to find a picture of this, whether that’s online or in a book. So, I’m absolutely chuffed to be able to share this with you. And I made the decision to ditch the normal panning around and just cut to the chase. I think you had 20 minutes of background last week, and a minute this week. Plus, my ratings are declining. So, a new approach standing at 1.13 m high. It was scheduled in 1946 and they have it as 13th to 14th century. But who’s to say this isn’t actually much older? Anglo-Saxon potentially. Either way, it is telling us a story of the afterlife of this Roman road which has now completely gone.
It was discovered here and reerected in 1859. And I’d say that it’s in one of the ditches of the Roman road. The quality surpassed my expectations. It’s got this, it’s sort of crude on the back. But the cross on what was presumably the road-facing side is really finely cut and I loved how smooth and worn it was too. Really evocative. Now, it stands where the Roman road reaches the top of this hill and before it starts to descend, which makes sense if we’re encouraging weary travelers on this ancient road in the dark ages or the medieval period, which might be the same thing depending on your point of view.
Whilst up there, I thought the Roman road was actually on top of the ridge and even did one of those reveal shots over the wall and I was trying to show that the wall was swelling as it went over the road, but studying it further, I’d say it’s actually coming up this side of the hill. We’ll be looking at the liar in a bit. Um, yeah, I’m imagining swells and aggers again. I’m always doing that. This shot is directly above the cross stone and over there you can see a long level stretch where the Roman road remains in use today.
Chapter 4: Roman Road
Turn right onto long level. And then getting closer, the derelict road stands out as a causeway here before disappearing on its climb up to the cross. Um, I would note these trees here. I’d suspect that they are growing out of the roadside ditch. There’s potentially the same thing on the other side of the woodland where I couldn’t see any sign of the road in the trees. It’s definitely not ancient woodland. Uh, but these trees on the other side I thought were interesting.
And there seems to be some potential roadstones lying around there as well. I’m now stood on the approach to where we get to that section of the road where we’ve got our wayside cross. I don’t think you’re going to be able to see. I’ve tried to put the camera over. Way too windy for the drone again. But over there I can actually see the causeway of the road quite clearly at this point running through that field and then it effectively is heading up this hill here to join the sort of ridge line at the top and our wayside cross.
Now over in this field here, I don’t know if you could see all the reeds, pretty boggy. Back in 1958, they did an excavation of a small section of the road there. Suspect it might possibly be where that tree is over there. And uh, they found that the road had been built on a layer of brushwood at that point. So it was boggy then. And they effectively floated the road on brushwood which was still there in good condition in 1958.
Then the road heads off up to the top of the ridge line becomes our long level road heading towards the small plantation today where our wayside cross stands. So, having studied this footage, I think you could see the trench there. It’s there. [music]
Chapter 5: Causeway
I think [music] I wanted to convey something of the times when this cross stood beside a dilapidated Roman road. And this is what our resident archaeological illustrator Victor AI Ambrose came up with. Quite atmospheric I thought although a bit weird that one looks like me. Interestingly just a mile or so up the road I’m not giving away locations this week is a Castrom place name. So did these guys, were they holed up there in some sort of Christian community living in Roman ruins?
Fabulous liar here. So that’s the causeway in the field and then on up the hill to pass the cross on the top. Here’s the ridge that I initially thought carried the road but no. It’s coming up the side of the hill and you can see beyond that and we’ll be popping up there before the end of this video to absolutely smash and decimate some expert opinions to pieces. Um and that’s the other way. You can see the causeway and then up to the cross about there.
Right, before I embark on some panning around to explain the unusual sequence of events in this video, I have noticed upon reviewing the footage, I’m talking to you incidentally from mid-edit, that my tie has become markedly adrift from my collar on location. So, I’m going to put this quote up on the screen by posh boy Hardy Amy’s to explain policy in this regard, which will hopefully mean that I won’t have to banish anybody for posting annoying comments. Look at that. It’s had to be redacted, hasn’t it?
Uh, we’ve had another exciting development mid-edit. We’ll come back to it. But first of all, we need to go back to earlier that day before I had my lucky break with getting access to the cross. So, we’re going to do that now. We’re going to go back to earlier that day. I’m doing this because you have to sort of go wavy when you go back in time, don’t you, on a documentary. [bell] Is it working? I hope you can hear me.
Chapter 6: Earlier That Day
Okay. I’m sheltering in the back of the car. It’s so windy. Just parked alongside this little lane. And the [clears throat] cross stone according to the ordinance survey position and if it is next to the Roman road then the cross stone is sort of towards what will be the left-hand side of that little plantation. So near but so far, loads of overhead cables to prevent the drone getting there. Plus it’s probably too windy for that today. Not a great angle for the chins but I’m just in the back of the car trying to keep the wind out of the mic. And I think it, you know, it’s way too rough out there to be able to get the drone out and across to it today.
Now, I’ve actually this morning I’ve been up to the big house. It’s like one of those to the Manaborn type setups here. And I’ve rung the doorbell to see if I could get permission. No luck there. Even went down to the little lodge house where they had a up-to-date Ring doorbell. Uh, but nobody wanted to speak to me. So, I’m in a real quandary. I want to see this cross stone. But it’s increasingly looking like trespass would be the only way to do so. Should I do that?
I don’t know if my old tired eyes are deceiving me, but I feel as though I can actually see it. I just need to get across there, don’t I? To find out for sure. I mean, I can find no photographs of this online, no records of it really other than the scheduled monument listing deep on a private estate. Who knows? It may have been trashed. It might not even still be there. But I need to know. Actually, no. That’s a sheep’s head.
Chapter 7: Tie Adrift
Throwing caution to the wind, I then threw my drone to the wind when I sent it over to take a look at the cross from afar and it blew away and nearly crashed into a aforementioned lodge house. And retrieving it led me to a meeting with a wonderful kind person who took me over to show me the cross. Now they were understandably concerned about lots of a certain type of person turning up, you know, all lot riffraff and thus the redaction of all locational information in this film.
Now, I had to strike a balance between my own personal belief that we should all have a right of access to our scheduled ancient monuments and the kindness and generosity of a really nice person whom I met. I was not only extremely grateful about getting the opportunity to see and touch a cross that I have literally gazed longingly at on the map for years, but there was also this incredible sense of place there. A Roman road built in the 70 ADs, a roadside cross put there on that road in the medieval period and all looked down upon by a Bronze Age settlement site up on the hills above. Wonderful.
Chapter 8: Sense of Place
This here then is my best clue as to when the Roman road left the hilltop. Although it does seem very late, the turnpiking of the road in the 1760s saw new stretches being constructed between redacted and redacted. Do you remember earlier when I said I’d never even found a picture of this cross online? No. Well, after I dropped that bit of footage into the editing software, I picked up a book that I had purchased recently at the very excellent Westwood bookshop in Sedba. Go check it out. It’s fantastic. Uh, and that’s about 5K’s worth of free sponsorship there, Paul.
I don’t think it blows the gaff on our location either because Westwoods do books from absolutely everywhere. Anyhow, look at this. Unbelievable. After all that time of searching, I’m mid-edit and I find a picture of the cross from a book published in 1972 and I purchased this for completely unrelated research. But there it is. Strange but true. I just can’t get my head around the fact that the cross seems more wonky and even possibly facing the wrong way. I’m not worried about it being further away from the wood. The wood seems to constantly have changed shape looking at maps, but has it been reerected in the last 50 years or so. I’m going to read what it says.
Still following the redacted self, we come to redacted on a lane from redacted just before the entrance to redacted mansion. An ancient stone cross three feet high stands on a hilltop near the track of the Roman road to redacted redacted. It is thought to have been dedicated by our pagan ancestors to some sacrificial use but later was carved with the sign of the cross and used as a preaching stone by early Christians. Now obviously that last bit’s complete mumbo jumbo, isn’t it? But interestingly, the very nice person that helped me see, access and see the cross said that prior to meeting me, they had believed it to be Celtic and they referred to it as their Celtic cross. Just goes to show mumbo written in books sticks.
Chapter 9: Smashing Through a Romano British Settlement
Last, but definitely not least, a bit further up the Roman road and the Ordinance Survey have it smashing through a native settlement. And this is what that settlement looks like on the ground, taken from a member exclusive video. You really should join. You really should. And experts have so-called experts have cited this as an example of Roman ruthlessness. But look what Phil’s liar shows. The road is actually passing to the side. I’m not saying they weren’t ruthless, but oftentimes they seem to try to keep the locals on side. And of course, this may have been built after the road. I hope you’ve enjoyed this slightly unusual video and if you have worked out the location, keep it to yourself. There’s a good fellow.
Chapter 10: Outro
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