Vanessa Collingridge and the team answer listener’s historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all ‘make’ history.
Programme 7
15ÌýMayÌý2007
What happened to the Roman road network?
A Making History listener with an interest in the Eleanor crosses of the late thirteenth century, noticed that the route taken from the place of her death near Lincoln in 1290 to London did not follow the great arterial routes of either Watling Street or Ermine Street. Could this be because those routes were now largely abandoned?
Making History consulted David Harrison the author of The Bridges of Mediaeval England (Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN-10: 0-19-922685-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-922685-6). David explained that roads would have been drawn towards new settlements, furthermore, Roman roads often ignored the constraints imposed by landscape and would therefore have been expensive to maintain. Therefore by the thirteenth century parts of these earlier routes may well have been little used and in a state of disrepair. To confirm the difference between the Roman road network and that of the middle ages, David visited the Bodleian Library in Oxford to view one of our earliest maps – the Gough Map. This dates from around 1360 and was bought by a Richard Gough at a sale in 1774 for half a crown.Ìý
Useful Links
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Further research on the Gough Map is being carried out at
The Political Roots of British Football clubs
Making History consulted Dr Rogan Taylor about the political roots of British football clubs. He argued that, although individual players may well have had political leanings, most clubs didn’t. This is different to the evolution of football in Europe where Italian and Spanish clubs in particular had certain left-wing or right-wing political leanings…
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Monmouth Rebellion
Were rebel soldiers sold as slaves after the Battle of Sedgemoor in July 1685? Making History consulted the author John Tincey who explained that hundreds were transported to the Caribbean and sold to work on the sugar plantations. However, unlike African slaves, they did not lose their identities and their term was limited to 10 years – not a lifetime.
Useful links
Further Reading:
Sedgemoor 1685: Marlborough's first victory by John Tincey (Leo Cooper Ltd, 2005)
House History
Making History listener Elizabeth Everill invited the programme to tell her more about the Victorian shooting lodge she lives in near Biggar in the Scottish Borders. Making History consulted Dave Cowley of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. He told us that there was evidence for previous habitation dating right back to the iron age, but that the firmest evidence was for a series of eighteenth century farmsteads. The glen would have quite heavily populated in those days before the ‘clearances’ and the rural de-population associated with urbanisation and the rise of sheep farming. The Victorian shooting lodge represents a very specific moment in time when there were wealthy landowners who wanted to provide decent accommodation for their guests who may well be miles away from the main house on the estate. Once the internal combustion engine arrived in the late nineteenth century the need for these lodges disappeared as guests could quickly reach the main house by motor car.
Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý
Contact Making History
Send your comments and questions for future programmes to:
Making History
±«Óãtv Radio 4
PO Box 3096 Brighton
BN1 1PL
Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý