Country Lanes

Country Lanes

 

Old 'Roman Road' behind Llanteg Hall

From an article in the Saturday Mail magazine – summer 2013 by Monty Halls

Country lanes, forged by our forebears over many millennia and still alive with the ghosts of the past.

These are timeless tracks, worn deep into the earth by foot, hoof, wheel and vehicle.

They cross our countryside in a network that shows the passage of ancient routes from village to village, meeting then dividing, sometimes converging on a single point,  a confluence of thousands of years and journeys.

Some country lanes are less a road and more of a canyon with high walls that retain the cool air of night yet become a stifling furnace when the sun is high in the sky.

We tend to take our history for granted in the UK which makes us immune to our surroundings, to the footsteps in which we tread.

So walking an old lane think of those who have gone before. 

There is a reason these lanes are cut deep into the earth; it is the long passage of time and trade.  The lane would have started out as a simple path, the first steps would have flattened the grass on the surface, over time it would have become a known route and the grass would have given way to bare soil, worn away by regular footsteps.  Countless trips back and forth, as one century passed into another, saw the track worn away.

Dark and mysterious, packed with wildlife and echoing with the muffled footsteps of the ghosts of those who have gone before.