Britain's Ancient Tracks - Pilgrim's Way

Good morning!  Tony continues his way through the Ancient Tracks of Great Britain.  Today he is going to visit the oldest oak in Britain and then tour the Shrine of Thomas Beckett.  Then he uncovers the lost battlefield of Julius Caeser.  He concludes with Darwinian discoveries on North Downs Way.  The run time for this episode is 46:21.

North Downs Way was used by Caesar’s Army and pilgrims.  Tony Robinson begins his walk at Castle Hill on the South coast of England in Kent.  It is there that the Eurostar Tunnel begins.  However, Tony is not going to go in the tunnel.  He is going to head north on the North Downs Way beginning at Folkstone.  He will travel inland and will take the old pilgrim road at Canterberry.  He will end at Down House, the home of Charles Darwin. 

On his first stop, Tony is going to be visiting a three thousand-year-old archeological find.  The archeologists are moving fast to learn more about the site.  The cliffs are eroding fast and so the archeologists need to work fast.  Tony talks with Andrew Richardson about the finds that were discovered on the site.  There were many grindstones discovered at this site which hints at large-scale production.  Did our Iron Age actually do large-scale production of grindstones?  Was there a thriving grindstone trade?  Tony presses on.

Tony travels further inland and talks about a poet who wrote about this site.  He eventually meets with the Pilgrims’ Way.  It is here he will make his way to Canterberry.  He talks about the tradition of making pilgrimages.  Tony meets up with Rain and Will Parsons and learns more about making a pilgrimage.  Will is part of a movement that is trying to revive the practice of pilgrimages.  Together they view an old oak trip.  It reminds me of the old oak tree at the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church, that unfortunately got sick and had to be taken down.  Tony takes in the sight of the oak tree and is very impressed.  He almost seemed very thrilled with being able to touch it. 

Eventually, he makes his way to Canterberry and the Canterbury Cathedral after walking through King’s Wood.  He first explores the Archbishop of Canterberry and how the Canterbury Cathedral was established.  It is Britain’s oldest established church.  However, pilgrimage really started to take up after the death of one certain Archbishop of Canterberry: Thomas Beckett.  Tony walks through the cathedral and points out the wearing of the stones in front of the altar from where the pilgrims knelt.  Tony meets Cressida Williams and they go over the account books.  Thousands of pilgrims made their way to the cathedral and would have given donations.  Each donation was carefully accounted for.

After visiting the Cathedral, Tony visits a former leper hospital.  This was a place where pilgrims would have stopped.  However, Tony is looking for a watering hole in the wood that used to have royal connections.  He eventually finds the watering hole outside of the woods.  In fact, he could have taken the path around the building.  He notices the Prince of Wales's feathers and discusses the first Prince of Wales: The Black Prince.  It was said that the Black Prince’s eyes were afflicted with a disease.  He dipped his hands in the water and put his wet hands over his eyes and they were healed.

After this, Tony moves into the forest and learns about how Caeser invaded Britain.  Or did he?  There was no evidence that Caesar ever made it to Britain, however, he had written about the island.  Particularly Caesar wrote about a Celtic hill fort and how a battle took place on this hill against the Celts.  Tony talks with a historian who is working on the site.  There have been quite a few intriguing finds on the site that hint that the battle took place at this hill.  What were these finds?  What else does Tony learn about the Romans in Britain?  Where else does Tony’s travels take him?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

This episode was very delightful and would be recommended for a history class, particularly for the Roman period.  Tony’s narration was great and oftentimes humorous.