Viewing 12 posts - 41 through 52 (of 52 total)
  • When you are riding…
  • Malvern Rider
    Free Member

    Most of the time. As a kid I was almost obsessed with maps (at least I read them as one might read a book) and have a life-long curiosity about old paths and tracks, routes etc (especially if they facilitate/link antiquarian features – anything from disappeared settlements to standing stones, from a river-crossing to an abandoned mine etc etc). I’m less interested in modern roads, but the historical paths and trails are potentially full of romance, politics and folk-history if one looks even slightly-closer than a brief Google. Recently re-visited a section of the monumental Ridgeway and stopped at Wayland’s Smithy For the first time. Mindblowing. Those chalk paths and rolling hills/beech copses feel like a different, older time. Completely awesome. Serendipity/following my nose/cycling (or walking) are like my holy trinity.

    More closely to home The Malvern Hills are epically criss-crossed with all kinds of routes, from the fairly pedestrian examples Wyche(salt)-Cutting to the most striking and mysterious (Shire Ditch). By accident (walking the dog) I discovered some OE/Saxon routes, near the Teme by Alfrick.

    One day in recent years I was looking through/deleting backlog of my photography, drawings and paintings and was struck by how many of them (consciously) are of a path/trail as the main feature


    (cart-road along The River Lugg, Nr Presteigne, Powys)

    Malvern Rider
    Free Member

    ^ Sorry, that was very poorly-written (even for me)
    If reading it then simply ‘hear’ it as being narrated by Keanu-Reeves or Eric Cartman pretending to be a geography-teacher, and it vastly improves. Definitely. Mostly.

    thelawman
    Full Member

    There are some really excellent map-based resources for this sort of thing. A handful of examples, some of which have been mentioned already. No doubt there are others:-

    Scotland
    Pastmap – with layers to Canmore, Scheduled Monuments, Historic Environment sites etc

    Wales
    Historic Wales – with links to Coflein, Archwilio, Scheduled Monuments etc

    England
    Historic England map – Listed Buildings and Scheduled Monuments

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    white101
    Full Member

    Another top notch thread on STW

    MrWhyte – that map is a fantastic piece of work

    johndoh
    Free Member

    So, has anyone else ever been struck with this incredible sense of historical connection/continuity when out on the bike?

    No, but I often get it when I walk in historical places such as the steps up to the top of St Peter’s in Rome and wonder about all those feet that have worn down the steps over the years. I was there in 2017 with my family and walked the same steps I had trodden in 1990 when Inter-railing around Europe.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Yep, used to ride part of the ridge-way in the Chilterns. I did wonder whether they moaned about how shit it was in the middle of Winter as much as I did.

    Course they did. None if it was surfaced then and at least you have a nice warm house to get back to with windows and hot water and clean dry change of clothes. And plenty of doughnuts and coffee to warm you back up.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    One of the places I mentioned is called Plas Machen, noticed the name in Ye Olde Font on the map:

    https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2181517770833791192

    hols2
    Free Member

    Happening across used condoms always gets my mind pondering the possibilities of what went on.

    RichPenny
    Free Member

    Yes, love this so much about where I get to ride/walk. Took my daughter to a local hillfort just the other week, fed her enough history for her to spend the entire hour walk back imagining how she would run a farmstead several thousand years ago. History is magic.

    mrwhyte
    Free Member

    The Local Historic Environment Record will give more info too. Sometimes too much!
    https://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/#

    If you go to the map view and zoom in, you can see all the historic points of interest, from where digs have taken place, pottery found etc.

    Edukator
    Free Member

    Yes.

    In the footsteps of Alphonse II on the “primitivo” walk to Compostelle. In fact almost anywhere along the multiple routes we’ve taken to Compostelle. Locally almost every ride uses a part of the Chemin Henri IV – only the armour is missing as we gallop along the historic route from Pau to Lourdes.

    Crossing Pyrenean cols there’s often a battle, exodus or epic journey that’s been through before. Rafting the rivers one is reminded of the wood rafts made to get wood down from the mountains.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    A few pics. Most of this was done walking but I just love to find this stuff. Sometimes its just a lump in a field. Sometimes its much more
    Neolithic hut circle
    [url=https://flic.kr/p/2hgbNct]IMG_1179[/url] by TandemJeremy, on Flickr
    Chambered cairn
    [url=https://flic.kr/p/2hgcHFi]IMG_1198[/url] by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

Viewing 12 posts - 41 through 52 (of 52 total)

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