What the Romans did for us

well, maybe...

Today we took the opportunity to have a bit of drive on the way home from Malton. At this time of year the hedgerows are alive with activity, with swarms of little brown birds flocking about the road as we drove along. The actual verges and hedges are flowering abundantly - cow parsley, meadowsweet, a million kinds of grass, and bright blue patches of cranesbill. In the fields, there are scarlet swathes of poppies, and through the villages cascades of roses in the gardens. We wound along over innumerable humpback bridges of stone, brick, concrete and iron, all seemingly on blind 90 degree turns to the road. We crossed rills, becks, ditches and rivers, some more than once; this is a swampy land which remembers when it was Lake Pickering. One of the old names for our village was Kirby O' Carr (pronounced Ow-ker), "carr" being another word for marsh.

We enjoyed our drive, but we had a purpose beyond trying to explode with hayfever. We were looking for points where the local roads and footpaths followed the route of Wade's Causeway, with a vague plan to see if we could plot a walk along it one day.

Wade's Causeway runs from Amotherby to Whitby, passing over the River Rye at Newsham Bridge and driving north via the Roman camp at Cawthorne to the coast. Parts of the road can still be seen, especially on Wheeldale Moor, testament to an engineering prowess which built things fit to serve an eternal empire. The history of the Causeway is uncertain - the Romans clearly constructed a road, but it may have been on top of an older trackway, at least in parts.

Roman roads are known for one thing at least beyond the simple miracle of their endurance, and that is their straightness. English country roads, on the other hand, are not very straight, rolling drunkenly from place to place. However, the Romans were not daft, and knew they had to skirt some obstacles; they just tended to go from point to point in as straight a line as possible, although each point may not have been far apart. As a result our lanes and streets often coincide for stretches with their ancient routes.

If the Romans did reuse older tracks, then they were likely created by the giant Wade for his wife Bella, to help her move her livestock across the moors. Or so some say. Wade and Bella were local giants and built Pickering Castle (motte and bailey style) and Old Mulgrave Castle, as well as creating Blakey Topping. Stories about Wade can be traced back to very early roots, although never for certain, and Bella has been linked to the Celtic goddess Brigit (of our old friends, the Bridestones).

And so we live in an ancient landscape, which in places chooses to show its face to those who look.