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I’ve lived close to the A5 much of my life, and long had a fascination with it as a historic road. It’s a road which has both divided...

Saturday 8 July 2017

What shall I do about this?

In the course of the last couple of days I have come to understand that my enthusiasm for the historic A5 is shared by others to such an extent that not one, but two, books on the subject are due to be published shortly:

  • 'Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and its Ever-Present Past' by John Higgs: to be published 13 July 2017
  • 'This Ancient Road: London to Holyhead: A Journey Through Time' by Andrew Hudson: to be published 21 September 2017

I am of course hugely encouraged and flattered to find that others share my passion for this road and its history. I will buy these books and read them avidly.

However, it does rather scupper my plans to write up my walk, if I find that the market is already saturated with books about the ancient road.  This blog is just a start - I was thinking that there might be material enough to write up my stories, and little discoveries here and there, once I have completed the walk, as a book. There is a lot more from my phase 1 that I haven't yet covered in this blog, and of course the experiences of phase 2 are still to come.

Will there be overlap or contradiction? Have Higgs and Hudson already dealt with the missing milestone in Colindale? Have they, too, explored the site of the Man and Boy Bush, and documented the pattern of red sandstone revetments? Do they know about what Bing Maps shows but Google Maps doesn't?

Did they walk it?

I will have to have a good look at their books before I can decide whether I would simply be duplicating them, or have something different to say.


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4 comments:

  1. Unknown12 July 2017 at 04:17

    I haven't walked the route, nor resolved the issues you talk about, so I hope there is room for all of us in this fascinating area. I'm only surprised that nobody has tackled the subject for over 100 years. I'll look forward to the second part of your walk and blog, and to your book, if you decide to write one. Looks like you have done some other walks too, which I must read about.
    Best wishes,
    Andrew

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  2. cerddwr4 August 2017 at 01:02

    I have read Higgs's Watling Street by now. He allows himself to include things five miles either side of the road - so he talks about places not really on Watling Street at all. While I did wander off from time to time, my schedule really wouldn't have allowed me to go that far off and still continue with the plan. Higgs can't have walked it - or he would know that it goes over, not under, the M25 (page 162). So, not much overlap and one contradiction.

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  3. Simon14 September 2017 at 05:39

    Ha - found your blog after searching when seeing a mention of Andrew's book on twitter. I've cycled a lot of the A5 and always enjoyed how many times the canal passes it too. I always joked if I wrote a travel book, this would be it - but I think you're all safe. Looking forward to reading more of your blog posts... ;-)

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  4. cerddwr14 September 2017 at 07:49

    Hi Simon, thank you for the kind comment. You can read some more posts very soon, as I start again this Saturday.

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