If anyone shares my interest/ mild obsession with maps and have enjoyed the extra insight that aerial views allow, this is for you.
One of my favourite spots in my home county, Wiltshire, is in the rectangle defined by the A4 between Beckhampton and Calne, the A361 between Devizes and Beckhampton and the two roads A342 and B3102 Devizes to Calne via Sandy Lane. If you google map "North Wilts Golf Course" as follows:
which gives you the satellite option, you will see the A361 across the lower right of the picture, itself an interesting road for anoraks as it is the longest 3-digit A road in the country.
gives you the gory details including the fact that the section through the Somerset Levels is liable to be flooded!
Meeting the A361 at an acute angle close to the upper right "A361" identifier is the old London Bath coach road which you can follow to the south of the Golf Club as it goes through or round Heddington and on to Sandy Lane ( not marked as such on the map but "Home Wood" right by the A342 is the spot) where food and rest would be found at the "George" as it still is. I didn't know you can get OS detail without subscribing? Try this !
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x...on,+Wiltshire+[Town]&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf
which will show you the site of The Battle of Roundway Down 1643 where the Royalists won a crushing victory over the Parliamentarians. The farm name "Turnpike Farm" is indicative.
To me the high spot ( literally and metaphorically) and a place I know only too well is just above the "North Wilts Golf Club" spot marker on the satellite view where the Roman Road ( Mildenhall to Bath, Cunetio to Aquae Sulis) separates from the Wansdyke with which it coincides for a short distance. You can follow the Roman Road to the east, initially curving as it follows the natural contours of the chalk dip slope and then in several straight sections along toward Silbury Hill. To the west the line of the Roman Road is clearly visible as far as Sandy Lane where it disappears into the wooded area of Spye Park and you can pick it up again in a long straight section as far as the woods above Bathford.
The Wansdyke itself ( a defensive ditch and bank ascribed to the 5th / 6th centuries AD) can also be followed along the hills bounding the north of Pewsey Vale as far as Shaw Copse.
If you want to follow another Roman Road not too far away try the Winchester-Mildenhall route which leaves Winchester as the B3420. This stretch includes the famous "Chute Causeway" where the surveyors decided not to inflict a steep descent followed by a comparably steep ascent on the soldiers and put the road round the rim of the declivity.
Mildenhall ("Mynal") has a church distinguished by Box Pews and was a favourite of Sir John Betjeman who used to walk to it from Marlborough when at school there.
Maybe others have special places to share.
One of my favourite spots in my home county, Wiltshire, is in the rectangle defined by the A4 between Beckhampton and Calne, the A361 between Devizes and Beckhampton and the two roads A342 and B3102 Devizes to Calne via Sandy Lane. If you google map "North Wilts Golf Course" as follows:
which gives you the satellite option, you will see the A361 across the lower right of the picture, itself an interesting road for anoraks as it is the longest 3-digit A road in the country.
gives you the gory details including the fact that the section through the Somerset Levels is liable to be flooded!
Meeting the A361 at an acute angle close to the upper right "A361" identifier is the old London Bath coach road which you can follow to the south of the Golf Club as it goes through or round Heddington and on to Sandy Lane ( not marked as such on the map but "Home Wood" right by the A342 is the spot) where food and rest would be found at the "George" as it still is. I didn't know you can get OS detail without subscribing? Try this !
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x...on,+Wiltshire+[Town]&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf
which will show you the site of The Battle of Roundway Down 1643 where the Royalists won a crushing victory over the Parliamentarians. The farm name "Turnpike Farm" is indicative.
To me the high spot ( literally and metaphorically) and a place I know only too well is just above the "North Wilts Golf Club" spot marker on the satellite view where the Roman Road ( Mildenhall to Bath, Cunetio to Aquae Sulis) separates from the Wansdyke with which it coincides for a short distance. You can follow the Roman Road to the east, initially curving as it follows the natural contours of the chalk dip slope and then in several straight sections along toward Silbury Hill. To the west the line of the Roman Road is clearly visible as far as Sandy Lane where it disappears into the wooded area of Spye Park and you can pick it up again in a long straight section as far as the woods above Bathford.
The Wansdyke itself ( a defensive ditch and bank ascribed to the 5th / 6th centuries AD) can also be followed along the hills bounding the north of Pewsey Vale as far as Shaw Copse.
If you want to follow another Roman Road not too far away try the Winchester-Mildenhall route which leaves Winchester as the B3420. This stretch includes the famous "Chute Causeway" where the surveyors decided not to inflict a steep descent followed by a comparably steep ascent on the soldiers and put the road round the rim of the declivity.
Mildenhall ("Mynal") has a church distinguished by Box Pews and was a favourite of Sir John Betjeman who used to walk to it from Marlborough when at school there.
Maybe others have special places to share.
See avatar!
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