Britain's Ancient Tracks - Ridgeway

Good morning!  Tony Robinson continues his travels across Britain taking on Britain’s ancient tracks.  Today Tony is taking on the Ridgeway.  It runs through Wiltshire to Oxfordshire.  He learns about the megaliths and Celtic chariots.  He explores a burial chamber older than the pyramids.  The run time for this episode is 46:51.

Tony will begin his walk on the Ridgway in Wiltshire after the A-4.  The Ridgeway is thought to be Britain’s oldest road.  He travels north and goes into Berkshire. He will end his journey at the Thames.  He will visit a stone circle, a burial chamber, and a famous horse.  His first stop on this journey is a stone circle.  He is visiting Avebury Circle and it was so vast that it took decades to build.  Eventually, a town was built in the circle.  What was this place used for?  Was it a place of ceremony?  Were there rituals that took place in this circle?  Local people tried to pull the stones down because they were in the way.  However, the archaeologists stepped in to save the stones, shaming the farmers who broke up the stones.  Even today, the residents know that houses were constructed from crushed stones. 

In 1934, a Scottish Tycoon stepped in to save the stones.  He purchased the town and the circle lock stock and barrel.  Eventually, he poured some money into restoring what he could of the stone.  Tony meets with Nick Snashall to talk about this tycoon who worked on the Avebury Circle.  He was a passionate archeologist and kept detailed records of his digs.  He re-erected twenty stones and used concrete pillars to mark the missing stones.  He sounds like a very cool guy and a very curious man.

Eventually Tony moves on down the road, contemplating how the stones got to Avebury in the first place.  Tony stops at Fyfield Down and takes in the sight of some large sarcen stones.  Perhaps the Avebury stones came from this quarry.  The examines one of the stones and sees cut marks from a Neolithic craftsman. That was a very nice sight to see.  Tony talks a little bit more about the ridgeway and how people stuck by it. 

Eventually, hill forts were established to protect themselves.  He encounters one of those hill forts.  Tony meets with chariot maker Robert Hurford who remakes Celtic chariots.  The Celts were often buried with whole chariots and so he was able to recreate one.  Together Robert and Tony talk about the sophistication of the Celtic culture.  The discovery of the chariots has upturned the thought that the Celtics were dunderheads.  Tony takes a ride in this chariot recreation and thoroughly enjoys the experience.  The Ridgeway at one point was a thriving highway.

However, there was a point where the Ridgeway vanished.  It was revived by Richard Jefferies, one of Britain’s greatest nature writers the one who discovered the significance of the Ridgeway.  It was thought that it was an old farm road.  However, Jefferies started making connections and realized that this road had a great deal of significance.  Tony goes to Coat and crosses a busy highway to learn more about Richard Jefferies.  Here he meets with Rebecca Welshman.  She is a trustee at the Richard Jefferies Museum.  Here Tony learns more about Jefferies and his impact on the Ridgeway.  Tony appreciates how the Ridgeway inspires legends and stories.

Tony makes his way to Wayland Smithy and visits a Neolithic Burial chamber.  It is the oldest human-made thing in the world.  J.R.R. Tolkien visited his place and now Tony is making his way to the chamber.  It was said that Wayland was the blacksmith of the Saxon gods and he would put shoes on horses.  Here he meets with Andy Foley of the National Trust to be let into the chamber.  Where else does Tony’s walk take him?  What other hill forts does Tony discover?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

I really enjoyed this episode, Tony shows his humor and curiosity about what he is learning.  I continue to get a kick out of Tony and would put this on my list of documentaries to show to a history classroom and a geography classroom.