That's a perfectly pleasant day for early autumn in the north east. And the scenery only gets better the closer to winter it is. You did remarkably well finding your way about on the roads in the area!. I've been in that area before and got hopelessly lost. A truly fascinating video Mr WC21. Barter Books in Alnwick recently had a signed copy of The Devil's Causeway for fifteen quid, alas out of stock currently.
Cheers Phil! Yes, those roads are confusing! Really interesting area - empty country in a wonderful way. I saw the same ad for The Devil’s Causeway! I’ll get a copy, I’m sure.
Thanks Darren for this very scary video! 😄 My random thoughts on the reasons for the names "Devil's Causeway" and "Devil's Highway" are: - Those roads may have been hardly maintained after the Roman era and traveling on them was even more dangerous than usual in the "Dark Ages", with accidents, robberies etc. The devil was a useful concept for explaining all sorts of bad things happening that couldn't be understood rationally. - Naming the roads after the devil perhaps was a kind of superstitious sarcasm, people were forewarned about what to expect and it became less scary. - The very straight line of the former Roman roads might have made people think they weren't man-made.
Thank you Jane. I wanted to show clearly where I was - might inspire some to go and have a look. The Northumberland paths need some walking to keep them clear!
How does one lose a £200 🌂? I'm sure you can get one from Blackpool for a fiver. 😂🙄. I hate that idiots seem to want to scratch their names on rocks. At least it's superficial and will wear away over the years. Another very interesting video, Darren. I do prefer the long form videos. I could name two patients but had to cheat for a third, so I'll just post the two I knew of, Ronnie Kray and Peter Sutcliffe. One must ask, does Mrs WC21 knit your tank tops? Thanks for sharing another great video, and yet again, I have learned something new about these great islands.
Thanks Chris and that’s another good question. It’s the second time I’ve just left one of those umbrellas whilst out filming. This is my last chance. Mrs. WC21 doesn’t knit my tank tops sadly - they’re stupidly expensive too. She hates them! Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for your ongoing support.
Hi Darren, Well I was right, in fact I've surprised myself. I knew there would be no mumbo jumbo!! The word "Devil" gets in everywhere especially when there is a difficult job to do although cooking an egg doesn't seem to fit in somehow!! You can see why it might get attached to out of the way places as a way of frightening people off. The same happens in Spanish but I'm not sure if it has attached itself to landmarks, I'll look out for it in the future. What does surprise me about the causeway is why it hasn't remained in use or at least parts of it, it's disappearing off the landscape rapidly. Broadmoor inmates, I knew of two, one of the most recent was Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, I remember all the news stories before he was finally tracked down. It's a really common surname in Yorkshire but for a while elsewhere it was a byword for him. Mum's side of the family are Sutcliffe and I'm very proud to be one too. The other is perhaps less known and that is William Chester Minor, who devoured old English books in order to obtain historical definitions of a vast quantity of words that appear in the OED. His story is told told in two books written by Simon Winchester, the wiki entry will give a "flavour" of the man. There is another called Charles Bronson (prisoner)!! This was really well put together over a period of time and you edited it really well, even one of the Tweedy brothers got a walk on part, although I couldn't tell if it was, Outdoors, Burgundy, Pubs or English Sparkling Wine. I'm starting to think it might be the same person ..... Very enjoyable, well done. All the best!!
Cheers David! The area the Devil’s Causeway runs through - north of the wall - has had a difficult history. Lawless land for centuries. I guess that’s why it’s disappeared. Very atmospheric country round there. I thought the Ripper did a stint at Broadmoor. Incredible people work there. I was a little too late to do a video on the Broadmoor sirens - sadly decommissioned now. Thank you very much for your positive feedback on the video. It was a lot of work, but also very enjoyable.
Nice to see the two areas, both of which have ancestral links for me. The northern one is most significant as the area around Ingoe is the ancestral home of my third great grandfather Geek (not real name obvs) and his family back in the 18th Century. Some of my maternal side worked at Broadmoor in 19th Century too and many lived/live in the surrounding counties to this day.
Cheers Neil - glad you enjoyed it. Always an interesting challenge to turn my passion for tracing Roman roads in the landscape into a worthwhile video. Yes, I’m extravagant with umbrellas. I’ve promised myself this is the last time I’ll replace one of these!
So much history yet few people know makes me think why some people bother going to school .When all they have to do is watch your channel and get a proper education .👍👍👍👍
Last time I was this early in comments I wasn't. £200 for an Umbrella...I need to start a patreon...🤣 The North East looking much as I remember it : An empty landscape that gives you Hartburn😜 Well apart from cup and ring marks. Silchester walk looked more appealing I have to say.
It’s great country, but still shows the impact of centuries of strife. On this occasion, the southern routes probably were more appealing - certainly easier to navigate! Cheers.
Great video really enjoyed it without coming across as rude would love to know the production cost and mileage foot and car of this video plus £200 umbrella which went missing up north nothing to do with the tea leaves down south
Thank you - glad you enjoyed it - it was fun to make, but as you say, probably expensive! I don’t keep records in case it makes me question my choices! Related receipts go in a file for later. Just checked and latest month’s revenue forecast on RU-vid is £129. Good job I love doing this!
Mental health? You are British, try discombobulated or perhaps melancholic, perturbed. Unhappy even, Why do some of these roads in some parts go out of use? Why are some of the parts of these roads used as civil boundaries. Were they just convenient lines to agree new boundaries or did they represent older agreed boundaries? Does Dere St go anywhere useful if I was an Anglo-Saxon peddlar?
You’d have loved peddling on Dere Street from York into Scotland as an Anglo Saxon! They peddled on it so much they named it after their kingdom: Deira. The Devil’s Causeway, on the other hand, just branched off to Tweedmouth - where one assumes the peddling wasn’t so good! The Devil’s Highway has great lengths in use as Parish and county boundaries, yet given that we know Silchester fell out of use by the 600s, I guess it’s not so surprising the road ceased to function as a main route. Fascinating to see it still showing so close to heavily built up areas.
Pure speculation... The name "Devil" could be derived from a reputation the road had for unpleasant activities on it, eg muggings or more military actions against travellers. A dangerous road becomes an evil road becomes the Devils highway. Of course this would require the name coming from a time when the road was in use, so pre medieval/early medieval/dark ages.
I would love to think these two roads picked up their Devilish names in the 600s - the English resisting Christianisation, but I suspect they’re probably later than that and likely linked to bad doings on the roads during the Medieval period, as you say. I hope to get a copy of that book on the Devil’s Causrway - maybe Rowland found something on the name. Thanks Chris.
Morning Darren- should have guessed you were talking about Broadmoor- wasnt one of the Krays there as well as Ian Brady? Can think of a few politicians who should be there starting with Keirus stalinus starmus considering we are reviewing the devils highway- his personal road in and out of hell where he lives when not in no 10- which should be re-numbered 666 Downing street!- you really worked hard on this one, harder than usual ,much appreciated mate 👍
Cheers Carol! I think there was a Kray there, along with a whole host of other terrible people. Didn’t the Yorkshire Ripper do a stint there too? You’re not a fan of our new PM, are you?! Too early for me to judge, but I guess he’s likely to disappoint like they normally do. They should name the wards after our worst PMs! This was the most time consuming video I’ve made to date. It wasn’t a chore - I love tracing Roman roads - and hopefully I’ve managed to make that interesting with this one. Cheers.
