Welcome to this weeks video. Ever wondered where all the Roman Mile Stones went? me too! This week we do something a tad silly and try to find one.
Usual notices:
1. We are not historians. We enjoy researching and learning, and with that we enjoy sharing our journeys with you. That said, sources for information often listed below with credits.
2. Errors. Whilst we make every attempt to not include any errors, research, and piecing stories together from dozens of sources sometimes leads to one or two. I will note here if any are found:
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Sources and useful Stuff:
https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/
https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/10848865/UoE_HCA_Sauer_E_Milestones_2013.pdf
https://www.milestonesociety.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/MW5-2012-web-version.pdf
Credit and Thanks:
Filter: Snowman Digital and Beachfront B-Roll
Maps: Google Maps
Maps: National Library of Scotland
Maps: OS Maps. Media License.
Stock Footage: Storyblocks
Music: Storyblocks
Roman Map: Jones and Mattingly
Advice: Clifford Jones.
Chapters:
0:00 – 8000 MileStones
1:23 – The Milestones
3:16 – What am I looking for?
5:55 – Red Herrings
6:55 – THE Map
8:12 – The Search
10:38 – The Find
13:25 – The Conclusion
It’s said that there’s over 8,000 Roman Milestones that remain today in what was the entire Roman Empire but here in Britain only 95 have ever been found with maybe a dozen more recorded but now lost all those 95 the vast majority are in museums which is great but
Only 95 surely there’s more than that so where are the Roman milestones and is it possible to find one the vast majority of my life I’ve been walking and cycling old routs a fascination with the landscape and how it shaped the lives of those that walked it before me lately I’ve
Been wondering how I should spend my time I’m not getting any younger I don’t get me wrong I love this film making journey I feel like I’m doing my bit for sure but what if I discovered something what if I found something that no one had recognized before
Me and what if that Discovery offered something to this community something would leave my mark on the world you see the meaning of life is to score a victory for Humanity however small that may be so let’s go find A Roman [Music]
Milestone this is Salisbury plane and I’m now walking part of a 250y Old Turnpike Road well actually that is debated but either way it’s a 250y old road now this abandoned route went from B to Salisbury it was called The Old Slow Coach now just up ahead I’m expecting to find
An old Milestone if we look at the old Maps well it should tell us that b was in that direction 23 mil and ahead of us in that direction would have been serum or Salisbury at 13 mil um that’s it’s
A bit of a muddy Trek here it is look at this okay so can’t see any rot on this side but if we have a look around here to the back we can see on this 250-year-old uh Turnpike Milestone
We’ve got 13 from sarum I can’t really make out the rest but it should say 23 uh from Bath great stuff well we found this Turnpike Milestone now shouldn’t this be relatively easy for the Roman Milestone I presume they’re on all the old Maps just like this one and they’re everywhere in fact
With 10,000 Miles of Roman roads in the UK in theory maybe just maybe there were 10,000 Roman Milestones so the only other thing we need to consider is the distance of a Roman mile you see today’s mile is 1,690.34 Metres now the Romans had that down to 1,000 Milli ,1,000 Paces
Now that equates to 1,480 M so slightly less let’s factor that in let’s crack on and find some Roman Milestones. okay so I gathered a whole bunch of images or at least sketches of Roman milestones and it turns out we have quite a range of shapes and sizes to consider anything from
UPR right pillars to pillow shaped rectangular rocks and that potentially makes things a little bit trickier we’ll come back to that shortly I’ve traveled to a place near Calleva Atrebatum a major Roman settlement now that settlement is mentioned three or four times
In What’s called the antonine itineries which are like root Maps um they guide you from town to town There’s very little evidence that remains sort of around today that can help us with the journey but I think the Antonine Inters might well be one of [Applause] them
Now Calleva Atrebatum has five major routes heading off in each Direction and lo and behold we have a potential Milestone on the OS map it’s marked IM short for impor imp impor impor okay we’re just about here on on site um about 100 yard or so away it’s on a main
Road now I don’t I don’t claim to have found this one because it does appear on a map but judging by the pictures and that I’ve seen the Google Images well it looks like we’re in for quite a
Treat okay here it is now this is the first Roman Milestone I’ve ever seen in situ this is a big tick for me but something’s not quite right because well firstly we aren’t near a Roman Road
The nearest road is maybe 800 M north of here and more importantly we have no Latin inscriptions on this one absolutely no indication this was ever Roman so what exactly is going on here it turns out that antiquarian William stukeley decided that this was indeed Roman despite the fact that it had
No Roman inscriptions and it’s not on a Roman Road quite some distance from One OS got excited back in 1838 and stuck it on the map and it remains there to this day so now we know what we’re
Looking for pretty much anything at all shape and sizewise let’s knuckle down what’s next in this Quest okay so before we start hunting on the ground because yes I am hunting on the ground shortly let’s have a look at one that was found in Northwest Hampshire in a ditch by the side of
A country road literally just here well on the edge of the field there it was found next to a Roman villa now that’s great because it’s safely now in Winchester Museum and we have an image of it so we know exactly what we’re looking for when we’re trying to identify a Roman Milestone
Kind of now that the issue we have here is that not only does this Roman Milestone not contain any miles it’s also three miles or so from the nearest Roman Road now that’s not to say that
There weren’t any miles on it and it’s also not to say that it wasn’t moved at some point but being found next to a villa you’d assume it was in situ it does raise a few question
Marks right I think if I’m going to start taking this this seriously I need to do two things both of which revolve around a map I love a good map and the goal remains to find a Roman Milestone so let’s plot every Roman Milestone on a map all those that have been
Found in this country these are taken from the rib databased Roman inscriptions now I have plotted them across the entire country in green to indicate their found location okay uh there aren’t that many right let’s focus down south my immediate sort of travel distance and
Let’s plot as well the major Roman settlements I’ll put those in a kind of a house shape in purple now secondly if I find the center of the Roman towns or settlements I can then plot every 1,480 M along a Roman Road and find the spot where the Roman Milestones should
Have been now I say the center of the Roman towns as opposed to the gates for a specific reason I’ll come back back to that later let’s get [Music] plotting let’s get hedge [Music] diving there’s probably only about two or three decent studies or books to help you sort
Of interpret Roman Milestone certainly in this country there’s a 1975 study done on the geology of the stones which is great there’s also another study done on African uh Milestones that was more about what sort of Road you were on Military Road or more of a a civilian Roman Road built
A bit later a 2011 study by the Milestone society that was great because it gave a whole essence of the Roman Milestones that had been found again 9 5 isn’t a huge data sample so one of the conclusions
He drew was the uh the large rounded pillar type ones where they had have been on the main roads and these smaller rectangular ones sort of led us to believe that they were on minor roads um or
Near Villas or just anywhere okay so 95 Milestones have been found in this country in some form or another the odds seem to be against us the Romans were here for what over 350 years or so and to top
All that off a quarter of those 95 Stones well they were found within 20 mi of Hadrian’s Wall now speaking of hadrian in this country at least it’s possible that he was the person responsible for their introduction strange notion but no examples of Roman Milestones dating prior to
Hadrian have been found absolutely nothing at all this would have been the exact spot and with that in mind only eight of those 95 Roman Milestones were dated prior to 240 ad now Roman Milestones were often reused or recut upturned cut flat started again next there something else worth
Considering too as we search well only eight of the 95 Roman Milestones actually have miles on them now that’s not to say they didn’t have Roman Milestones on them maybe it was carved off at some point or perhaps even painted on but only eight were used as Milestones potentially nothing here
Impression this is completely Futile [Music] and then I remembered something a river a Ford a town close to a main road an old Route a settlement north of the lead Road in Wilshire I’ve seen something that caught my eye someone
Had mentioned something to me a stone by a Ford have I inadvertently known about a stone all along was that a Roman Milestone so I found myself back on this route we’ve got War just that way there we
Got Salisbury over there and the A36 runs between them this route however this small Road here runs perpendicular to that it starts way up on Nook Camp lots of Roman fines all relating to sort of grain production now I believe this to be a tertiary or secondary Roman route therefore it
Went all the way that way up onto the lead road now just down there is a Ford and there was a stone when we came here before I just discarded it did didn’t even think anything of it but now I’ve
Been researching all of this so much maybe just maybe this time I know what I’m looking for now there’s a lot more water now than there was when we came here last time it’s been a very wet winter
And none of this was underwater last time so we may or may not find that our stone is completely buried I mean it’s pillared shaped now we’ we’ve got two distinctive types of Roman Milestones we’ve got
Pillar ones now um they were reputed to be on the main roads according to um one particular Source whereas the more rectangular ones were they were potentially on just sort of Villas and and and tertiary routes so if it was going to be milestone here you’d expect it to be rectangular
But nevertheless this is bigger than I ever remembered this is um this is quite significant so I took a couple of pictures and consulted some archaeologists unfortunately it seems the general consensus is this is potentially a stone from a mill or perhaps even a facade on a building
Long since discarded unfortunately we’re going to have to get back to the drawing board the search continues okay so today I didn’t find a Roman Milestone and if I’m honest probably never thought I was going to but perhaps in some ways this has helped me understand a lot more about Roman
Milestones their purpose the Milestones were perhaps that way of encouraging allegiance to whatever Emperor was in the Reign at the time here in Britain thousands of miles from Rome those stones would act as a great way of controlling the local population letting them
Know who really is his boss to the glory of Emperor whitewick may his riegn last forever oh and uh Winchester 10 miles that way mate and of course I’ve started that map so maybe just maybe
There’ll be at some point a part two I’m sure if I keep searching then something will come up I’ve been Paul I hope you’ve enjoyed my adventure as much as um I have frankly it’s been it’s
Been a real learning curve as always I’ll see you this time next week [Music] hey what keep walking got
38 Comments
Very interesting, Paul. I suspect many of them could be under the ground now.
Also, the passage of time has to be a reason why so few are found. Near my parents’ house in Suffolk is the remains of a medieval priory – by remains, it’s one section of wall, about 3 feet long. A Roman mile stone is about twice the age and much smaller than a medieval priory!
Cheers Paul …. What did the Roman’s ever do for us? 🤣🤣🤣
Great video Paul. I know, from personal experience, how hard it is just trying to find "old boundary stones" showing on 1895 maps (especially in Dorset!). Great research & presentation as always.
NZer here – you're sooo lucky, Paul, to be in such an old country with its mountains of history!
Richard III, for example, being dug up in a car park!
Even your geology is great – the dinosaur fossils that the UK has far outnumber ours!
Nil desparandum.
Could that stone with no markings have once been an ancient standing stone or part of a formation?
Great clip and I loved how you created the search pattern. It triggers a question though: From which side of the road end you start counting the miles? From East to West or from West to East? Probably you have a common scheme that deviates from the precise map pattern you created!?
It looks like his rain is going to last forever! 🤣
Another excellent video Paul. You really are maintaining very high production values. To echo some of the comments on here, now you have a better understanding of the stones themselves, it may well be worth having a look at some of the older churches close to the roads. Stone may well have been used, and reused, and a trained eye may spot what others have missed.
Great video, informative and gripping. If anyone can make the find it’s you. I think you might just be successful in this quest one day.
If a pace is 1.4 metres, that’s long. WhenIpace out distances, my pace is less than a meter.
You need to review your map with areas of land that haven't changed usage to get the best results.
Farms and town move and rebuilt everything but if you have a route going through an actual ancient woodland or some other geography that's not been changed then you might have a better chance at the stones also not being moved
Could you go to where a milestone is/was situated and then map the 1480 meters out from that?
Don't give up. Keep walking!
One of your best videos so far. Thank you for sharing your adventure. Don´t give up! You´ll find something significant sooner or later
Thank you for sharing bits your journey. Even on that some may label as a "failure". The point of a journey isn't the end-goal, but rather what we learn and experience at alone the way.
Hearing you talk about no milestones before hadrian , reminded me of a lecture when Hedly Swain was speaking about Roman milestones in general , how few & many of those that have remains of inscriptions but no mention of miles..
I wonder how many are part of the structure of old farmhouses, re-used again and again over the centuries.
Thanks Paul for enduring such awful weather and putting yourself out there! You are an inspiration in showing us that we mustn't let the great British weather spoiling our plans! Fascinating content: well done.
When I was a child, I was told that a marker stone on the A30 between Sutton Scotney and Stockbridge was a Roman milestone. I cannot remember the location along the road, as I was only about 10 at the time, which is 55 years ago.
I 😂always enjoy your adventures. Sometimes they work out, sometimes not. But I get a little more knowledge with each one. Thanks.
I did some measuring on the OS map north of Chester along the Roman Road now followed roughly by the A540. And concluded that the small white early twentieth century County Council milestones are set at Roman Miles rather than statute miles. I concluded that the original Roman milestones at these points had simply been replaced – probably several times – over the centuries since the end of the Roman era. With little regard to accuracy along the route. Something else I noticed was that right angle junctions – ie roads joining a main road also appeared to be at exact multiples of the Roman Mile. Where there would have to be a post of some kind to indicate where the routes went to. So perhaps the reason there are no Roman Milestones to be found is that many have been replaced or updated. And on the sections of road that ceased to be proper roads for vehicles – these pieces of stone have been regarded as abandoned and were carted off to be used as building material. Keep up the good work though – keep looking.
Brilliant video, as always.
Must be stunning to see these Roman era landmarks and partial structures. Your conversation and tour were great as always. Hello to Rebecca and see you on the next, Paul! 🇬🇧🙂👍🇺🇸
Awesome Paul. Fantastic channel, very informative.
Given any errors in measurement would have compounded over a route, I'm not sure adding the miles to the reference marker was the most fruitful search method.
I agree with what others have said about finding possible stones in churches. In my area (Mid-Essex) it is said that at least 2-3 churches were built on possible stone circle sites, some of which stones were incorporated into or under the building of the churches. A lot of Roman brick is visible in the fabric of the church walls. Also one church (St Mary's Broomfield) is thought to have been constructed using alot of material from a nearby deteriorated `Roman Villa, there is a stone in the exterior wall of the church which seems to have a face carved into it, as if it were part of a Roman statue or carving repurposed. I would be interested to see more videos on this Hunt.
I wonder how many of them are currently bases for sun dials in country houses. Very interesting video.
one day paul,one day
Very nice video. As in Doctor Who 'The quest is the quest.' So keep carrying on.
I imagine most of them would have been recycled as gateposts, doorposts and suchlike. Also in 2,000 years the markings might well have eroded off. You only have to look at gravestones in churchyards – even the ones "only" a couple of hundred years old are often hard to read.
wait what.. so Roman miles were give or take 200 metres shorter than ours? So where does that leave their 40 miles a day marches then?
Even if that stone was from a house or a mill, it should be on display somewhere. An Aussie museum would put it on show.
At the end 13:57 , is that a grass airstrip??
Good video
Loved this. Love history, hope some day you will find one. Thanks for taking me along. Please take care
Another great videos, Paul.
Nicely done as always hope you find that stone. My good friend Scott has done an amazing job digitising RIB and I find it invaluable especially on Hadrian’s wall. I’ve visited many milestones out in the wild one of which a delivery van had driven into.
Felt like I was watching a BBC documentary, one of those ones they were making plenty of back in the 2000s. Great stuff, and fingers crossed for finding one in a part 2!
Enjoyed this one Paul.