The old straight track – The Ridgeway on Warren Down, Oxfordshire. This section connects the large Iron Age sites at Uffington and Segsbury Camp.
Image credit: A. Brookes (30.8.2014)
Images
The Ridgeway runs across the shot, along the top of the ridge (obviously). Segsbury hillfort is approx. centre. The viewpoint is Lark Hill, south of Wantage.
Image credit: A. Brookes (3.5.2014)
The road goes ever on and on. The Ridgeway between Uffington Castle and Wayland’s Smithy.
Image credit: A. Brookes (22.2.2014)
Pair of sarsen boundary stones alongside the Ridgeway west of Barbury Castle hillfort.
Image credit: A. Brookes (21.5.2011)
The Ridgeway north of Hackpen Hill, seen from the ramparts of Barbury Castle.
Image credit: A. Brookes (21.5.2011)
The Ridgeway runs the length of shot, between Barbury Castle hillfort and Hackpen Hill, seen from Uffcott to the northwest.
Image credit: A. Brookes (21.5.2011)
The Ridgeway today (above Bishopstone). The wind picked up causing deep drifting of the snow.
Elemental indeed!
Image credit: tjj
The foot tunnel bearing The Ridgeway beneath the M40 just next to that spectacular cut through the Chilterns towards Oxford.
Image credit: A R Cane
Two big sarcens on the side of the disused railway line.
Image credit: A R Cane
Water to the left of us.....
Image credit: A R Cane
....and water to our right.
Image credit: A R Cane
The Gods’ searchlight moves across the landscape near Chinnor.
Image credit: A R Cane
The main line as it emerges from the Saunderton Tunnel.
Image credit: A R Cane
Just after Lodge Hill. Flat and muddy just doesn’t seem right.
Image credit: A R Cane
Heading towards Whiteleaf Hill.
Image credit: A R Cane
Whiteleaf Hill Neolithic Barrow.
Image credit: A R Cane
Panorama of barrow and stunning vista.
Image credit: A R Cane
The view over Princes Risborough.
Image credit: A R Cane
Large stone in the courtyard of the Red Lion in Wendover.
Image credit: A R Cane
Ancient stone or natural drinking trough for animals?
Image credit: A R Cane
Beautiful woodlands after leaving Wendover.
Image credit: A R Cane
The high footbridge which carries The Ridgeway over the A41.
Image credit: A R Cane
Climbing the beginning of Pitstone Hill and the re-emergence of The Grim’s Ditch.
Image credit: A R Cane
Barrow cemetery? No, grassed over quarrying heaps.
Image credit: A R Cane
The quarry near the top of Pitstone Hill.
Image credit: A R Cane
The Grim’s Ditch as it traverses the side of Pitstone Hill.
Image credit: A R Cane
The end in sight.
Image credit: A R Cane
Ascending Steps Hill.
Image credit: A R Cane
Incombe Hole and the hills from whence we came.
Image credit: A R Cane
The higher cross dyke/defensive earthwork on Steps Hill.
Image credit: A R Cane
Another of the numerous cross dyke/defensive earthworks descending Steps Hill.
Image credit: A R Cane
The barrowed knoll to the south of the Beacon featuring one man and his dog.
Image credit: A R Cane
He’s still there! (Looking South).
Image credit: A R Cane
The somewhat trampled barrow on the Beacon.
Image credit: A R Cane
One day all this will be yours son.
Image credit: A R Cane
The end.
Image credit: A R Cane
The road ahead as we depart Segsbury Camp.
Image credit: A R Cane
Somewhere in there is the Grim’s Ditch. It gets much better further east. Honestly.
Image credit: A R Cane
Baron Wantage’s monument built on top of a Bronze Age round barrow apparently.
Image credit: A R Cane
Scutchamer Knob which, at first glance, looks more like the front of a Cotswold Severn Long Barrow. Lovely spot.
Image credit: A R Cane
Panorama of the Knob from the eastern side.
Image credit: A R Cane
Open rolling downland as far as the eye can see.
Image credit: A R Cane
The disused railway line that once ran between Southampton, Newbury and Didcot.
Image credit: A R Cane
The low barrow to the right and what may or may not be the faintest marks of a R***n Temple on the left.
Image credit: A R Cane
The (Medieval?) field systems on the way down to Streatley after Lowbury Hill.
Image credit: A R Cane
A brick in the middle of the track. Asking you or telling you?
Image credit: A R Cane
A lonesome sarcen on the side of the track near Thurle Grange.
Image credit: A R Cane
The Bull at Streatley and home to a few sarcen stones.
Image credit: A R Cane
Hard to believe that this is the Ridgeway at this point.
Image credit: A R Cane
A pleasant riverside walk.
Image credit: A R Cane
The site of the now-vanished barrows near Barracks Farm near North Stoke.
Image credit: A R Cane
The beginning of the more impressive section of Grim’s Ditch.
Image credit: A R Cane
Why are we walking along this low bit when we could be walking on those hills yonder?
Image credit: A R Cane
The gap in the Ditch at Cart Gap. It’s wide enough to drive a .......yeah, yeah.
Image credit: A R Cane
Ah, so that’s where we are.
Image credit: A R Cane
The ascent into the foothills of the Chilterns,
Image credit: A R Cane
Quite a difference in levels at this point.
Image credit: A R Cane
Nearing Nuffield. There’s been some clearance of this section.
Image credit: A R Cane
Just north of Nuffield Common.
Image credit: A R Cane
A Red Kite and constant companion.
Image credit: A R Cane
Swyncombe Downs
Image credit: A R Cane
Image credit: Gingertrailertrash
The beginning.
Image credit: A R Cane
Three small barrows on a spur off Overton Down.
Image credit: A R Cane
Sheep, stone, sheep, stone, sheep, stone.......
Image credit: A R Cane
Part of a string of large sarcens lining the LDP near the Grey Wethers.
Image credit: A R Cane
Is it a barrow? No, a small reservoir.
Image credit: A R Cane
Barbury Castle from the South West.
Image credit: A R Cane
My sister and brother dwarfed by ancient beeches.
Image credit: A R Cane
The glory that is Wiltshire!
Image credit: A R Cane
Liddington Castle hoves into view.
Image credit: A R Cane
The earthwork running parallel to the LDP. (Note the sarcens scattered along the ditch).
Image credit: A R Cane
Looking East from the LDP as it climbs towards Liddington.
Image credit: A R Cane
Liddington Castle’s Southern ramparts.
Image credit: A R Cane
The Smithy.
Image credit: A R Cane
The Southern aspect of Uffington Castle viewed from the LDP.
Image credit: A R Cane
Banks and ditch near the trig point.
Image credit: A R Cane
Panorama of the White Horse, Dragon Hill and the Manger.
Image credit: A R Cane
One of the barrows closest to the LDP at Sparsholt Down.
Image credit: A R Cane
Segsbury Camp viewed from the Ridgeway LDP.
Image credit: A R Cane
The South Eastern ramparts from the Southern entrance.
Image credit: A R Cane
Looking back West towards The Devil’s Punchbowl and the Ridgeway path.
Image credit: A R Cane
More sarsens along a section along a rutted section of the Ridgeway.
Image credit: tjj
Vehicular damage to the Ridgeway on the section between Hackpen Hill and Avebury.
Image credit: tjj
Walking from Hackpen Hill towards Avebury – a large solitary sarsen stone in the middle of a field can be seen to the left.
Image credit: tjj
Cow parsley sunset on The Ridgeway
Image credit: A R Cane
The Ridgeway in winter, near Liddington Castle hillfort.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image credit: Chance June 2010
‘Berkshire’ Ridgeway from Streatley to Avebury. 1969.
Image credit: Phyllis Elton
The Ridgeway by The Sanctuary
Image credit: Donny Mcintyre
West Kennet Long Barrow from the top of a barrow at Overton, on the Ridgeway.
Image credit: Photobabe
Two of the Barrows near/by the Ridgeway as seen from Avebury Ring
Image credit: Photobabe
Two of the group of six Barrows by the Ridgeway at Overton Hill
Image credit: Photobabe
First time I’ve ever seen a ‘no horses and carts’ sign!
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
‘Ridgeway parade‘
watercolour painting (c) Jane Tomlinson, 2005
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
Image credit: texlahoma
I wish 4Wdrive vehicles and motorbikes would act responsibly!
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
Although the authorities have done quite a lot of repair work, there are still vast areas of impassible ruts. What a bloody mess! This is just by the entrance to Waylands Smithy.
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
‘One way‘
Building on the ideas about the Ridgeway and the landscape through which it passes which I developed in ‘Hannah’s Ridgeway walk’, in this watercolour painting I have tried push further the ideas of ‘what is the right way to go?’, right and wrong, straight lines versus curves and a lot more besides. See what you make of it.
Send it as an e-card from here: Http://www.janetomlinson.com/earthmagic.asp
Image credit: (c) Jane Tomlinson, 2003
To read more about this watercolour painting see my weblog...
Image credit: (c) Jane Tomlinson
Look at the bloody ruts that all those sodding trials bikes and 4x4s leave! It makes walking and riding needlessly dangerous.
The Ridgeway as it heads down from Uffington Castle
This is a section of the Ridgeway between Wayland’s Smithy and Uffington Castle, which you can see up on the horizon.
Barrows seen from the ridgeway near the Seorfon Barrows and The Sanctuary – Silbury’s top is in the centre peering above Waden Hill.
Articles
Western Daily Press
The National Trust and Wiltshire Police are to crack down on the ‘number and behaviour’ of people camping on Britain’s oldest roads – the ancient Ridgeway near Avebury – for the summer solstice.
A new plan has been drawn up by the Trust, which owns the stone circle in the Wiltshire village, to clamp down on the growing numbers of people staying outside the village and blocking the Ridgeway, which runs along the hillside just to the east of the village.
The crackdown will also see more enforcement of tighter new parking restrictions at Avebury village itself, as the National Trust aims to curb the excesses of the revellers who gather there.
The move follows hugely controversial measures put in place by English Heritage for the summer solstice at Stonehenge, including charging £15 to park cars in the temporary car park, and banning alcohol on the site for the night.
While the crowds can reach 40,000 at Stonehenge to see the sunrise on the longest day in June, the solstice at Avebury is a much smaller affair. Crowds there can reach 5,000, and there already has been one major crackdown on what went on there.
There was absolute chaos in 2005 and 2006 when so many people parked all over the village that they completely blocked the main A361 Swindon to Devizes road, which runs through Avebury. During the 2000s, residents also complained consistently of drunken, loutish behaviour by revellers, including finding people vomiting, sleeping, urinating or defecating in their gardens. Many residents still go away for the two days either side of the solstice to avoid the event.
The National Trust and police clamped down on parking. It is no longer allowed anywhere outside the existing visitors’ car park, which fills up almost as soon as it is opened on the eve of the solstice, and camper vans are banned.
But increasing numbers of people are heading to Avebury – anecdotally to avoid increased regulation at Stonehenge – and many camp wild along the Ridgeway, which is a short walk across the fields from Avebury village, and affords amazing views over the stone circle and Silbury Hill.
The Ridgeway there is the start of an ancient road that runs all the way to East Anglia and dates back to at least the creation of the Avebury stone circle more than 5,000 years ago.
The Trust said it wanted to make ‘Solstice a more peaceful occasion’, and its plan would make the celebrations at Avebury ‘safe for everyone and respectful of the World Heritage Site’.
As part of the plan, the Police and Wiltshire Council will increase patrols on the Ridgeway – a byway east of Avebury where the number and behaviour of people gathering during Solstice has become a problem.
The National Trust said regular patrols of the byway ‘will ensure safety, keep access along the byway open and prosecute and remove those found to be breaking the law’.
Jan Tomlin, the National Trust’s General Manager in Avebury, said: “We want the Solstice at Avebury to continue to be known for being a peaceful, respectful occasion which all those who care most about the henge and the village would want it to be – that is why we are taking this action.”
“As landowner we are concerned about the safety of anybody using our land – including the Ridgeway. A robust management plan as proposed and enforced by the council and Police is the right thing,” she added.
Philip Whitehead, Wiltshire council’s highways boss, said he was ‘delighted’ action was being taken. “I am delighted we are taking a real partnership approach to tackling the challenges the Summer Solstice brings to Avebury,” he said. “It is a real team effort, and I look forward to another successfully managed event.”
Read more: westerndailypress.co.uk/National-Trust-crackdown-Avebury-solstice/story-29147628-detail/story.html
“These exhibitions represent one person’s ambition to capture the spirit of this beautiful, quintessentially English countryside in a series of 24 paintings inspired by the topography of that most ancient of tracks, The Ridgeway, steeped in history, fought over, threatened by population, housing, traffic, erosion, climate and agriculture; ever changing.”
Details here – theheritagetrust.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/a-ridgeway-journey-an-exhibition-by-landscape-artist-anna-dillon/
Sponsored walk in memory of Wysefool. Lover of the Ridgeway and contribrutor to this site, in aid of Sobell House Hospice that gave him so much peace in his final days with us.
uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=amandaking.jameswyse.ridgeway.com&isTeam=true
Laura Barton, writing in the Guardian yesterday, reports on the route of the high-speed rail link that -
“At stake, too, is the preservation of the Ridgeway, Britain’s oldest road — a pathway followed since prehistoric times by herdsmen, travellers and soldiers, running from Wiltshire, along the chalk ridge of the Berkshire Downs and on to the River Thames at the Goring Gap. It passes the stone circle at Avebury and the White Horse at Uffington, as well as Grim’s Ditch, Wayland’s Smithy and Barbury castle. It runs, too, right down Wendover high street, past the clock tower, built in 1842 and now repurposed as the visitor centre, then out towards Wendover woods. There is an ancient feel to this land, something rich and deep and solemn.”
More here – guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/20/heartache-over-high-speed-railway
“BARRIERS installed along Britain’s oldest road have helped cut poaching and hare-coursing, according to police.
“Oxfordshire County Council installed the temporary barriers between Hill Road, Lewknor and Hill Road, Watlington, on the Ridegway National Trail. And they have already seen results with a drop in crime. The blocks were fitted in April to stop poachers, harecoursers and deer stalkers in cars accessing the track, known as the Icknield Way, and to stop thieves driving to isolated farm buildings.
“The pre-historic Ridgeway track runs from Avebury, Wiltshire, to Ivinghoe near Dunstable, across South Oxfordshire.”
More here – oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8356258.Barriers_keep_crime_off_the_Ridgeway/
See also – heritageaction.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/avebury-is-not-dudley/
An interesting article in The New York Times....
THE Ridgeway is the oldest continuously used road in Europe, dating back to the Stone Age. Situated in southern England, built by our Neolithic ancestors, it’s at least 5,000 years old, and may even have existed when England was still connected to continental Europe, and the Thames was a tributary of the Rhine.
Ridgeway Trail; Once it probably ran all the way from Dorset in the southwest to Lincolnshire in the northeast, following the line of an escarpment — a chalk ridge rising from the land — that diagonally bisects southern England. Long ago it wasn’t just a road, following the high ground, away from the woods and swamps lower down, but a defensive barrier, a bulwark against marauders from the north, whomever they may have been. At some point in the Bronze Age (perhaps around 2,500 B.C.), a series of forts were built — ringed dikes protecting villages — so the whole thing became a kind of prototype of Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England.
The land here is downland, somewhere between moorland and farmland, hill after hill curving to the horizon in chalk slopes (the word down is related to dune). Here on these pale rolling hills, the plowed fields, littered with white hunks of rock, sweep away in gradations of color, from creamy white to dark chocolate. The grassland becomes silvery as it arches into the distance. The wind always seems to be blowing. The landscape is elemental, austere, with a kind of monumental elegance. The formal lines of the fields and hills not only speak of the severity of life in the prehistoric past, but would also match some well-tended parkland belonging to an earl......
three pages read on....
A newly renovated bunkhouse set in a converted skittle alley and attached
to a real ale pub has been leaving guests ‘bowled over’ in Wiltshire.
Recently opened YHA Clyffe Pypard is conveniently located right next to the Goddard Arms and has already welcomed a steady stream of visitors from all over the world.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 12th November 2004:
Motorbikes and 4x4 vehicles which were damaging one of Britain’s oldest roads have been banned from the area.
The temporary order has been imposed by a number of district councils on parts of the Ridgeway National Trail in south Oxfordshire during winter months.
In previous years the 6,000-year-old trail has been churned up by trail bikers and off-road riders.
From the Scotsman:
Drivers of 4X4 vehicles are to be banned from using parts of Britain’s oldest known road this winter.
Quadbikes, trail bikes and off-road cars will face a seasonal ban from vulnerable sections of the ancient Ridgeway which runs from Wiltshire to Buckinghamshire.
The “mudlarks” have been blamed for causing ruts in the 85-mile route, which is thought to be at least 6,000-years-old and was used by prehistoric man.
The implementation follows meetings with rural affairs minister Alun Michael and campaigners who have sought a complete ban on vehicles since 1983.
Among those pressing for the ban have been mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington.
Thames Valley Police has been carrying out special patrols in Oxfordshire recently to catch irresponsible off-road thrill seekers tearing up the track.
But off-road enthusiasts such as the Land Access and Recreation Association say they are a small minority and have been victimised. They claim farmers and horses cause more damage.
Ian Ritchie, chairman of the Friends Of The Ridgeway, said: “A voluntary code of respect has been in operation on the Ridgeway for 10 years but has plainly not been working.
“This ban is excellent news for all walkers, horse riders and cyclists who wish to enjoy the Ridgeway in peace, free from the ruts and mud that make the trail hazardous and unpleasant.
“Although a seasonal ban falls short of the total ban that we have been advocating, it is a very big step in the right direction.”
Mr Michael said: “I am sure that this will help to make the difference we all want to see in order to protect the Ridgeway for all users.”
The Ridgeway runs from Overton Hill, near Avebury in the south, to Ivinghoe Beacon, north of Aylesbury, and includes numerous Stone Age and Iron Age hill forts and burial mounds.
All six councils along the route have agreed to the seasonal ban which will be imposed from October.
Yippee! At last! There may be peace and quiet for the walkers, bicyclists and horse riders who use the Ridgeway...
From the Oxford Times, Thursday 10 July 2003
Laws banning motor vehicles from the Ridgeway national trail may come into force if a conservation project to repair the damage they have caused fails.
The Government is considering barring four-wheel-drive vehicles, motor cycles and quad bikes from the historic 85-mile trail next year, if a national trails improvement scheme is unsuccessful.
Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs called for the Government to agree to introduce a ban if the project fails.
But Tony McNulty, parliamentary under secretary of state for transport, said the project needed to be given a chance.
The Countryside Agency has pledged to restore and improve the national trails, including the Ridgeway, which runs across south Oxfordshire.
About £1m is also being sought by the Oxford-based National Trails Office to repair stretches of the route, with support from Oxfordshire County Council.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr McNulty said: “If the Countryside Agency’s management plan and the work of local authorities do not produce results within 12 months, the Government is committed to consider promoting a ban.”
A section of the Railways and Transport Safety Bill is likely to be amended to include the possible ban. It was scheduled for discussion in the House of Lords on July 10.
Lord Bill Bradshaw, who lives in Wallingford, was expected to be among supporters.
Don Foster, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, who was among those calling for the amendment, said the Government must ensure the issue was taken seriously.
Peter Gauld, secretary of Friends of the Ridgeway, which has campaigned for vehicles to be banned, said: “I would be pleased to see this amendment go through.”
In April, county councillors from the three main parties supported a motion to ban vehicles.
The executive board was asked to use traffic regulation orders to protect sections of the route, which are advertised on websites for four-wheel-drive enthusiasts.
Yesterday I walked the section of the Ridgeway between Hackpen Hill and Avebury (to the Polisher stone). Overcast and very windy, it felt very autumnal; was wonderful to be up there overlooking the Wiltshire downs. The hedgerows were laden with berries of many varieties which reinforced the autumnal feel.
Last time I was up here was in the winter and the surrounding fields were covered in mist so I missed the intriguing large sarsen stone that stands alone in the middle of a field to your left, walking towards Avebury. Not possible to get closer without climbing wire fencing so just had to look from a distance.
Was concerned to see part of the track heavily rutted and, coming back, three vechicles passed – one was towing some sort of people carrier that had people in it (they didn’t look like farm workers).
Love this ancient trackway so much; it is always different according to the time of year and weather conditions – and always an intense experience.
Stretching for 85 miles from Ivinghoe Beacon in the north east to Overton Hill in the south west, the Ridgeway’s midsection cuts a dashing white swathe through my patch: Oxfordshire. A particularly fine short section from the Uffington White Horse to Waylands Smithy allows the walker/cyclist/rider to experience the drama of Uffington Castle enroute to the great long barrow just a mile and a half away to the south west. The views over the big wide fields and patches of woodland of Uffington Down are breathtaking. Park at the ‘official’ car park for the White Horse and follow the signs to Waylands Smithy for a real treat....
Knowing that this is the oldest trackway in Europe in continuous use, when I walk on it, I love the sense of my feet echoing back down the track for millenia.
If you’re into birding, this short section never fails to disappoint. Keep ‘em peeled to see buzzard, brambling, greenfinch, yellowhammer, titmice (lots), kestrel, lark, plovers, thrushes, woodpeckers.
The Crow Down hoard consists of five gold items designed for personal adornment. Three of these are plain undecorated bracelets and two are more elaborately designed armlets. They date to the Bronze Age, around 1200 BC and they are the only prehistoric gold items found in Berkshire.
The more elaborate items demonstrate the skill of craftsmen at this time.
Found in Lambourn during a metal-detecting rally, the hoard was declared Treasure in 2005 and acquired by West Berkshire Museum with grant aid.
Objects of high status, including gold items of this type, would have been highly sought after. Their distribution shows trade links across northern Europe. Whilst it is not clear where these objects were made, the gold was probably sourced from Ireland.
Not far from the find spot is the Ridgeway, now recognised as a strategic route from prehistoric times onwards.
Tumuli
Gaunt trees, scant shelter
For the grass covered barrow
On wind caressed downland
Overlooking the vale
The ancient chalk highway
A stone’s throw away
Lies vacant, brooding;
Acknowledges whispers, inaudible echoes
Vibrations from invisible feet
Weathered sarsen monoliths
Stand to attention
Lichen encrusted overseers
Of a strange uneasy place
The pulse quickens, reactive sensation
An incorporeal feeling;
The heart of past centuries
Although hidden, still beats.
David Pike
Thoughts of the Icknield Way
(downs of Berkshire)
When wild west winds sweep o’er these Downlands free
And sway ripe cornfields ‘neath a changing sky
They lash to dancing ev’ry storm-tossed tree
And shout and sing of ages long gone by -
We walk the Ridge, as did those skin-clad men
Who chipped the flint and worshipped each new day,
The Sun, Deliverer from night’s terrors then,
Ere Roman legions tramped that windy way.
Where now wave toadflax and the scabious blue,
Where Pasque flowers nestle, as the heights begin
Of rounded hills lit with a rainbow hue: -
Once ran the hares before the battle’s din.
Time was, when as the startled larks took wing,
The blowing-stone went sounding far and near,
As Saxon warriors rallied round a King,
Who saved his land, yet held Christ’s Faith more dear.
Men saw his valour on the Field of Fame,
His great forgiving of a captive foe,
To whom, baptised into Christ’s saving Name,
Was granted freedom, and a new life to know.
Men knew his zeal for learning and for law,
Culture and music, love of kith and kin,
But God alone his nightly vigils saw: -
Those prayers in suff’ring that Heaven’s strength could win.
Sister Sylvia
Wantage
notes:
‘Field of Fame’ = Ethandune
‘captive foe’ = Guthrum and the Danish Leaders
Ridgeway Pageant
All the hills are watching,
Awed and still:
Away below
Retreats the faint-heart Vale.
Above,
An angry, mighty sky
Rears high,
Piled all triumphant to the setting sun -
Lit mad in changing chaos:
Silver backed, then gilded.
Mottle-splashed with crimson...
Darkened depths, part broken,
Upward pierced
By shafts of sunlight questing -
Molten vistas glistening
And portals passioned low
In ranks of terraced fire.
They drift, they fade..
New forms take shape -
With opal half-light intermingle...
Glare reflects a lustre
On the pale, dry headland mass
Of White Horse Hill.
A strange, tense calm -
Impending dusk alight with radiance:
A wild serenity.
In slow, rough accent:
“That ther’ brings some weather, sna...”
A shepherd stays his sheep
Before the blaze.
Roye England
Vesper Vale
June, at evening, on the White Horse Hills!
O, joy is overflowing, hope fulfilled,
For summer lures long days to lavish pride.
Lush her rising cornfields – rich the downs
That trail, deep rounded, far to failing east.
Hedgerows riot thick and countless starred;
Green slopes are swathed with blush of clover pink.
Beneath, past weighing elms, in soundless rest
A village clusters down its ancient street.
Distance silver, amber, stretches over;
Wide the Vale and far the furthest view.
Droop of sundown, musing, dwells the listless
Prospect lightly. Sheltered farms, half hid,
Yet lie outspread, and meadows lonely; woods
Apparelled darkly – straying byways lost
In gathered trees, and low-set fields struck gold
By myriad buttercups. Afloat the plain
Late scented breaths are stirred, and fitful murmurs.
Hint of tedded hay pervades the heights‘
Rare potpourri. The listening air goes filled
With trilling, winged of larks, from all the hills;
In random field light-footed rabbits play
And cattle gaze in deep unthoughtfulness.
Roye England
The Ridgeway Long Distance Footpath was officially opened at Coombe Hill, near Wendover on 27th September, 1973. It runs for 85 miles from Overton Hill in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire, crossing the Thames at Goring Gap, and is marked along the way by sturdy oak signposts, low stone plinths and white painted ‘acorn’ waymarks. The trackways it follows were old before the Romans came, having been in continuous use since man first travelled across the face of Britain. Indeed, the Ridgeway is thought to be the oldest prehistoric track in the country.
Excerpt from the introduction of ‘Walks Along the Ridgeway’ by Elizabeth Cull and published in 1975.
Vale of White Horse
The Vale was once a gem:
Far years speak beauty – make us long to know
Their ways – to treasure, prize,
As not the present, Can they be relived?
No, hardly now. And yet
Their joys survive – made yours, within these pages.
Come, let’s seek them. Backward
Glance, and prove
What gracious days then shone.
This book recalls, alive, time past, sublime -
The massing of great elms,
Their shaded fields; deep thatch, men one with nature.
Roam with us these pages...
Find rich lands unspoilt – their paradise
Till now not sung, not known.
The Vale, seen still superb, awaits you here:
Oh, come with hope -
Explore...
-
Roye England
To all those, of every generation,
who made the Vale the gem it once was –
a paradise,
shared and tended by the men who lived there;
who worked it, loved it, and kept it unspoilt:
till modern change struck, and not caring,
betrayed its charm.
Roye England
All Ages Waken
Long thousand years fly lost
Since Alfred gazed the Vale in moods as these -
Ago when wildboar ranged the marshy plain
Ere forest yielded: when, cut hoar, the Horse
Saw Saxon truce with Dane. Yet no more rapt
Hung vesper magic then than pauses now
In beauty hallowed timeless, unbetrayed:
For, God -
All ages waken when there falls
Of evening, spell-bound, so enchanted calm
Roye England
The best example I know of.. [an] excellent sort of vitality in roads is the Ridgeway of the North Berkshire Downs. Join it at Streatley, the point where it crosses the Thames; at once it strikes you out and away from the habitable world in a splendid, purposeful manner, running along the highest ridge of the Downs a broad green ribbon of turf, with but a shade of difference from the neighbouring grass, yet distinct for all that.
No villages nor homesteads tempt it aside or modify its course for a yard; should you lose the track where it is blent with the bordering turf or merged in and obliterated by criss-cross paths, you have only to walk straight on, taking heed of no alternative to right or left; and in a minute ‘tis with you again -- arisen out of the earth as it were. Or, if still not quite assured, lift you your eyes, and there it runs over the brow of the fronting hill. Where a railway crosses it, it disappears indeed -- hiding Alpheus-like, from the ignominy of rubble and brick-work; but a little way on it takes up the running again with the same quiet persistence.
Out on that almost trackless expanse of billowy Downs such a track is in some sort humanly companionable: it really seems to lead you by the hand.
From ‘Pagan Papers’ by Kenneth Grahame (1893). You can read the rest at Bill McClain’s home page here:
home.salamander.com/~wmcclain/grahame-pagan-papers.html
A mere one thousand years ago,
King Alfred marched this crest of chalk
To fight the Danish foe,
And strained to see that very lark.
In this same Saxon blue.
Just two thousand years ago,
The feet of Rome stamped here and here
Upon this bouncing turf,
And glittering, ravenous conqueror’s eyes
Devoured these seemly, gentle hills.
From here, four thousand years ago,
The men of Bronze surveyed their works
Through eyes as wide as mine,
As wondrous Silbury, virgin white,
Bedazzled in it’s prime.
And here, six thousand years ago
Gazed Neolithic eyes
On wonders older still:
On tombs of Kennet, Avebury Henge
And ancient, ancient Windmill Hill.
Now they are gone, those mighty men,
Those Lords of all they saw,
And only I am left to walk
This high and winding lonely lane,
Whilst all around, on deep-etched hills,
Their proud, immortal marks remain.
What voice commands, what power compels
That such as they should go?
It is the same insistent call
As whispers in my ear:
There is a time for mortal men,
You may not linger here.
Perhaps, like mine, their spirits soared,
Above this magic land,
Perhaps they both rejoiced and cried
At beauty unconfined,
Perhaps this final earthly view
Blazed in dying eyes.
Perhaps that spark has never died,
And essences remain.
For see that joyous soaring lark
And hear it’s blissful cries.
It could not be more free than I,
Nor joyful nor fulfilled:
Perhaps no power, no time, no death
Can take me from these hills.
Ridgeway
like a friend
I hated you at times
the paces you put me through
each time I go further and faster
so I always know how the pilgrims felt on their way
south
to silbury
and the stones of Avebury and
beyond
Can be seen in the West Berkshire Museum, Newbury
Take on the epic challenge of 100km on foot along the oldest path in Britain
official Icknield Way web site (encompasess the Rudge)
‘Fighting to preserve the spirit of The Ridgeway‘
