My name is Gareth Icke, and when I'm not working, or parenting, I like to walk, and explore.
Join me as I take a walk through the beautiful countryside of the United Kingdom, following disused railway lines, canal paths, and ancient pathways to try and discover forgotten history, and incredible stories from the past.
I am also partial to an underground explore, so you may find me down a lead mine or two, trying to uncover the history that lies beneath the surface.
I am located in the industrial heartlands of the midland England, but at any opportunity, I venture further out into this incredible land.
Fantastic vid many thanks. Should never have been scrapped. ( We need it now !) When they scrap all these bike lanes they are rapidly putting in will any one mis them ? As I don’t see anyone using them !!! Including a chap riding on a pavement adjacent to a dedicated cycle path !!! Work that one out if you can because I can’t !!!! 🙃
“Every cloud…” (even when there are stingers, hidden slide tackles, bug bites, sore muscles - long as you don’t sprain something - right?) Hope your bicep healed, Gareth. Thanks for your companionship on the walk, Phillip, or Philip. :-) And, the editing for these videos is really good. Where’d you learn how to do that? (time and experience, I guess)
Hate stingers with a passion. You must get stung from head to toe on your walks! My hubby said he's pretty sure he met you with your dad around 1992 outside Maccys in Newport, IoW. Frank said David was a pretty sound guy! Looking forward to your next stomp. 👍
Used to live on Toadmoor Lane. The other theory is the old moor but I’d say the habitat good for toads! There is still a red triangle road sign for toads crossing nearby at bottom of Crich Lane, Ridgeway. Interesting extra thing that Ambergate is famous for - “In 1966 the first fully operational electronic telephone exchange in Europe opened in Ambergate. This was also the first small to medium electronic exchange in the world and the first of many TXE2 type exchanges.” There is the underground reservoir - “Ambergate Reservoir was constructed in 1910, to an Edwardian design”. Plus you get 4 modes of transport running parallel to each other - “an intertwined system of road, railway, river and canal routes” which I think is quite rare. You went over halfpenny bridge and there used to be a ferry house! Enjoyed seeing these familiar walks very much. Cheers 👍🏻
I believe that in that area all of the early industrial projects where delayed not directly through the marshy an boggyness of the ground but rather the abundance of Toads an the resultant difficulties in moving them to safe pasture, an trying to stop there sale on the various markets as affordable food, so much was this the constant story of delay exspessed by foreman an excavators as an explanation of yet further time required to there bosses, that More Toads, became a kinda mantra, an thus ToadMore stuck. Brilliant walk this Gareth an Phil, I’m liking all the stonework fab stuff an at 23.22 in there’s a very round circular pond was it an ancient valve for letting out the water when it got to high? or an entrance or top of a mineshaft? Cheers
@@IckeWalks they’re often situated next to star forts an come in pairs, an from an engineering perspective paired circles are valves of some sort, I’ve noticed them in farmers fields they tend to be singular, and next to or near stately homes in pairs. I imagine in many cases they can be explained away but in others perhaps not, it’s just that they are so very round a perfect circle. We have them on the common here but in this case they’re likely to be single room dwellings dug out an bridged with wood so as to get off the cold floor, they now look like slightly collapsed well holes. In some recent field art on Salisbury plain there’s a I think it’s got six squiggly design the shortest arm is pointing at one such circle. Cheers
Great mixed bag as you noted. Looks like lots of fun, except for the stingers and such. We don't have that kind of stuff in 'my neck of the woods' unless you hike up in the mountains (5,000 ft).
The gate you were standing at at the beginning was the driveway up to the old Oakhurst Manor Mansion. Up until a couple of years ago you could get up to it without being stopped but due to vandalism security seems to have been ramped up on the place. The house is incredible and you used to be able to get in the cellars below it, there are lots of images of the place on google. The cottages you visited shortly after were fully intact about 5 years ago with contents and furniture still inside, a real time capsule. Unfortunately again it looks as though vandals have burnt them down. Great video guys 👍🏼
great job as always gaz always look forward to a new walk, and always great to have phil on them too, have a great rest of the week and catch you on the next one.
I grew up very close to Friar Gate, I lived around there for 29 years, it will always be home to me! I have explored the bridge, the platforms, the cellars of the warehouse countless times. This was before the vandals and the "spontaneous" fires ruined it. Some of the arches were used as businesses, one was a car spraying business where my granddad worked and my great uncle worked on the railway, my great uncle lived on Arthur Street which backed onto the railway. My mum used to tell stories of how the houses used to shake when the trains went by & how my G-uncle used to know which train it was just by the time they went by, I believe she also told me she used to play on the tracks after the line closed to collect the coal that had fell from the trains. I also recall the cutting below where the Severn Stars pub is and that new road. This would have been sometime between 1995 - 2000, I would have been around 5 - 10 at the time. It was a solid painted grey metal wall that you could see over if you were tall enough. I was only little so my dad picked me up so I could see over, I recall the cutting and seeing trees and bushes but don't remember seeing any tracks at that point in time. The cob shop has been there for as long as I can remember. My dad also worked at the Ryknelds mill that you pointed out as did my mum and this is where they met and the reason I am here and able to share these fond memories :)
Hayup Gareth there was a Motorcycle called a Silk which was vaguely a resurrection of an old brand called Scott one model was the Flying Squirrel, they where made around your neck of the woods but maybe Belper or Derby I went there as a kid it was definitely a mill. True about the Sardinian,s I once owned perhaps the oldest MV Agusta four stroke motorcycle in England an whilst chatting to a Hot Sardian bird on a bus, who was obviously speaking Italian, I asked her what Pie Rino meant she looked at me rather funny! then said it means the Pappa or the Godfather in specifically Sardinia! I told her my bike This MV Agusta had inscribed on the underside of the fuel cap Pie Rino! She said as I was realising this was to act as a deterrent, as anyone stealing it when refuelling would see who owned it a quickly leave town! She was looking at me funny as it’s a coloqualismn only known as far as I can tell to Sardinians which are kinda like the overseeeers of the mafia. The bike was from 1955 I bought it in Bournemouth in the 1990,s from a type writer shop, it had no ignition key you just jumped on it an went, I imagine many folks ran off with it back in the day only to die a death upon refuelling an return it fast. Cheers.
“Stole the music off the Italians” l o l. And learned what bonnie meant today, in relation to Bonnie Prince Charlie anyway: beautiful, pretty, charming…. Guess one could say Bonnie Gareth, too. Maybe not ‘pretty,’ but charming yes. Have a good day.
I do love the story of Bonnie prince Charlie. Follows me round to be honest. I spent a lot of time around Eriskay back in the day. Thats were he landed.
That was AMAZING!! So fun to watch. It took me a little while to warm up to Phil. But now I want one of my own - to go caving with. I know he’s not an action toy. What a bloody legend!
Lovely stomp! Just what's needed after a mental week! I appreciate the view of the cooling stations as well, was one of my 'nearly home' views of the ones near Didcot growing up.
Usually I give people copyright strikes for using my content without permission. As you did credit me I will let it slide, Great video very interesting 👍🏻
As amusing as it always is when you take a slip, your superhuman ability to manage to say “Ow” instead of a choice expletive is extraordinary. And thank you for going above and beyond for a signal post and ladder, good sir. Yet another video that has made my day!
Brilliant episode, it's possible to get from Lincoln to Skeggy still! What a viaduct that was. Love the platforms that appear...that pigeon made me jump too!
A great amount of info there, you don't know til you know, do you! Love the faces haha... that house was amazing. The curious cow was very intrigued with you guys. Thank you!
@stevenberryhill9209 to be honest, when I was editing I was looking at old maps and I think it was something railway related after all. Which is even more embarrassing!
Hello Gareth really good video you have cheered me up I am feeling a bit down with things and The Mams are getting on my nerves lol haha really good video and you love your baellast lol haha keep up the good work take care peace and love xx
Those railway arches look so much like the viaduct down in Tavistock in Devon. Hope you come on over to the Isle of Man soon, and sample some Fynoderee gin!
You got there in the end 😀 Not a walk suggestion but it could lead to some ideas for you-there’s a coal mining exhibition/40 year anniversary display of the strike at Eckington miners welfare this week. Just thought id mention it if you could go it might give further inspiration for stomps
Fascinating - I knew about the railway (having cycled its route), but wasn't aware of the copper mines. Note - Row in Rowsley is pronounced as in row of houses, not as in argument. I lived close by for 14 years.
“Oh, yeah, the steep way” lol Man, you guys can do it all: recount history; scale rocks and rills; look good w your cropped-manly and disheveled-manly hair; commune w the cattle and sheep; and who knows what else :). And, I saw a video where two subsidence experts (1 Dutch, 1 American) each pronounced it differently, one Phil’s way and one Gareth’s. So, seems you’re both right! 🌳
