The Road: A Story of Romans and Ways to the Past

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Ingeniously constructed…scholarly…wears its learning lightly… is engagingly written…and always a pleasure to read” - Country Life Hadley wears his scholarship lightly but at the heart of this antiquarian wild goose chase is an ingenious meditation on what history, in all its complexity and unevenness, really is.' Guardian The first main Roman Road was the Appian Way, began by Appius Claudius Caecus while he was censor in 312 BC. At the time most roads were Etruscan and served the needs of their culture so roads that would facilitate Roman military transport were of the utmost importance to the Republic. changing the landscape, etching the story of the Roman advance into the face of the land, channelling In our Book of the Month for January 2023 – T he Road: A Story of Romans and Ways to the Past – Christopher Hadley takes us on a lyrical journey searching for an elusive Roman road that sprang from one of the busiest road hubs in Roman Britain. While time and nature have erased many clues, Hadley gathers traces of archaeology, history and landscape in a mesmerising journey into 2,000 years of history only now giving up its secrets.

Christopher’s detective story is both an exploration of the skill of the master engineers who built Watling Street and those who have added their own footprint to its path through the ages. Christopher Hadley lives in Furneux Pelham with wife Rebecca, a GP partner at Bishop’s Stortford’s South Street Surgery, and their three children As in Britain, many other countries still bear signs of Roman roads which had the same impact of facilitating troops, supplies, trade and travel across the Roman empire. This interconnectivity was revolutionary, and showed foresight into how we live our lives today in our global economy. Hollow places is a love poem to a mysterious and enigmatic piece of stone, and a meditation on the enduringpower of folklore to make sense of our world and its past...After so many centuries, the legend of the dragon slayer has found in Hadley a storyteller who revels in holding rapt the attention of his audience long into the night.' Kelcey Wilson-Lee, author of Daughters of Chivalry A sensitively intelligent excavation into Hertfordshire history, the English imagination and omnipresent myth’ Derek Turner in Country Life Hadley leads us on a hunt to discover, in Hilaire Belloc's phrase, 'all that has arisen along the way'. Gathering traces of archaeology, history and landscape from poems, church walls, hag stones and cropmarks, oxlips, killing places, hauntings and immortals, and things buried too deep for archaeology, The Road is a mesmerising journey into two thousand years of history only now giving up its secrets.Christopher Hadley, acclaimed author of Hollow Places, takes us on a lyrical journey into this past, In this new connected world, the demands of the Roman state, including over a million consumers in Rome itself, could be met by producers many hundreds of kilometres away. This transformed the countryside. The past is animated with imagination and knowledge … Shonks and his story, the tomb and the now vanished yew are a starting point for a digressive and affectionate exploration of a local tradition that has survived for 800 years … Authoritative and well-researched’ Carolyne Larrington in The Spectator Rivers, Silk roads and camels - how did international trade adapt and survive beyond the Roman Empire into the middle ages? Listen Now There’s no subtle way to describe this kind of book. It’s a meandering journey, journal, essay, something, written with that very specific British wanky-ness that some people just love. Whenever I am exposed to this kind of pretension I feel an immediate disconnection and rejection. Any shared joy I can glean - such as over the use of delightful antiquated words that are doubly delightful for their utter uselessness - feels somewhat unclean.

Christopher Hadley's celebration of English folklore across 800 years delights in these imaginative tales which have shaped and coloured the cultural landscape of the nation ...Enriching and at times surprising ... Anchored by memorable tales, the narrative over-turns long-held historical beliefs as it goes ... Hollow Places has an innate charm ... The book's real success lies in being alert to what makes these superstitions and rituals special - the understanding that imagination trumps truth' TLS This meditation on the power of folk myth lives up to its billing as an ‘unusual history’. It’s also engaging, wide-ranging stuff, exploring how stories become ties that bind’ BBC History Magazine Almost everyone in Britain lives close to a Roman road, if only we knew where to look. In the beginning was Watling Street, the first road scored on the land when the invading Romans arrived on a cold and alien Kentish shore in 43 CE. After Hollow Places was lauded as “the most unexpected history book of the year”, Christopher might have been forgiven for expecting a similar reception for The Road, but he took nothing for granted. Christopher Hadley's first book (62110064) An absolute joy to read and an early contender for every list of History Books of the Year’ Sunday TelegraphErmine Street has now been weathered by time, turmoil and redevelopment, yet portions can still be traced today. Another example is Fosse Way, which once connected Roman Exeter with Lincoln and now follows portions of the A46, A37 and A30. The Romans never set out to create an empire but they did, from Britain in the north, to Algeria in the south, Spain to Israel, the Nile to the Rhine. Rome built its empire from the ground up, connecting people and places in a way that had never been seen before. One of the Roman Empire’s greatest legacies was its roads. In this magnificent book. . . Hadley takes us down a different way, looking through a gentler window on that road's long lost days. He reveals The Road's own intimate knowledge of the land it knew and the folk it's known, turning the tables on what we think we're reading; because The Road is not really about it, it's about us” - Mythical Britain, Michael Smith author of King Arthur's Death

Peddars Way was built in around AD61. The road stretched 46 miles from Knettishall Heath, near Thetford, to Holme. Underneath was a number, showing how many miles you were from the nearest staging point. This meant people knew exactly where they were – for the first time, people could place themselves in the world. A symbol of power and a connected world A sensitively intelligent excavation into Hertfordshire history, the English imagination and omnipresent myth' Country LifeEnthralling … Hadley is not a professional historian but he is, as he shows in his meticulous and occasionally inspired researches, following a distinguished line of gifted, patient, sometimes brilliant amateurs’ David Horspool in The Oldie The book seeks to recreate the curiosity Christopher felt as a boy when he explored the Roman ruins in what is now the Staffordshire village of Wall and takes both author and reader on a voyage of discovery. Have you ever heard the march of legions on a lonely country road? The Romans built thousands of miles of roads. For two thousand years they have determined the flow of ideas and folktales, where battles were fought and where pilgrims trod. Almost everyone in Britain lives close to a Roman road, if only we knew where to look