Walkie Talkies

Current topics

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby hvered » 5:51 pm

It might be worth watching Tony Robinson doing a Stonehenge tour, 8 o'clock tonight on Channel 4.

Watching a walker walk must rate among the most boring TV programmes yet devised but we're advised this one will be 'enlivened by an array of weird characters etc.' http://www.channel4.com/programmes/walk ... /series-2/
hvered
 
Posts: 855
Joined: 10:22 pm

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 3:07 pm

Have you tried the Orange Way?

It's a new Long Distance path
http://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show ... Orange+Way

It follows the march in 1688 of Prince William of Orange and his army from Brixham in Devon, across the countryside to London.


It seems to be close to the Greater Ridgeway for much of the way.
Boreades
 
Posts: 2081
Joined: 2:35 pm

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby hvered » 8:37 pm

I find it hard to believe that the Dutch followed such a straggling route from Torbay to London

Image

The Orange route is further south than the Ridgeway. If Wills had gone directly north from Exeter to Cadleigh i.e. Cadbury Castle, he'd have hit the Michael Line aka Ridgeway...but that wouldn't serve the purpose since he wasn't presumably interested in reaching the Norfolk coast. It looks like the route goes partly via the A303 though it seems unlikely the Dutch soldiers intended visiting Stonehenge, unlike modern walkers. The quickest way from Amesbury to London would be to north/north-west and then straight down the old London - Bath road (the A4).
hvered
 
Posts: 855
Joined: 10:22 pm

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 10:44 pm

hvered wrote:I find it hard to believe that the Dutch followed such a straggling route from Torbay to London


Maybe it was a political route? As in WoO travelled to each county town (political centre) in turn, checking-out the native sentiments?

Exeter (Devon)
Yeovil (Somerset)
Salisbury (Hampshire)
Newbury (Berkshire)
Not shown on the map but the route goes through Abingdon, the ancient county town of Berkshire (not Oxford)

Then where?
Boreades
 
Posts: 2081
Joined: 2:35 pm

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 10:47 pm

I have to confess, logistically, I've no idea why WoO sailed all the way to Brixham and then walked/rode all the way back to London, when a trip up the Thames Estuary would have been a lot quicker.

Why then?
Boreades
 
Posts: 2081
Joined: 2:35 pm

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby macausland » 10:40 am

Didn't his ships get caught in a storm and blown off course?

In any case he was probably testing out how much support he could rely on in the country before tackling London.

Even Boudica practised on Essex before burning London to the ground. Hence the expression the Smoke.
macausland
 
Posts: 339
Joined: 3:17 pm

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby hvered » 4:34 pm

Legend -- sorry, history -- relates that William arrived on 5th November 1688. If it's true, the date is significant, celebrating anti-Catholic sentiments; the south-west corner may have been considered a potential problem in which case landing in Brixham seems strategic.

Either way, he seems to have ignored the rest of the country, presumably the Stuarts were relatively popular up north?
hvered
 
Posts: 855
Joined: 10:22 pm

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby macausland » 4:55 pm

William was related to the Stuarts by birth and through marriage.

His support in England seems to have come mainly from Whigs in London. He was also backed by the Pope who held a mass for him at the time of the Battle of the Boyne. Vienna was illuminated after his victory. It has been said that the Battle of the Boyne was the last European war on British soil.

Scotland in particular suffered from William's activities up there culminating of course in the Glencoe massacre.

His 'finest' achievement was the creation of the Bank of England. He invented or rather copied the idea of creating money out of thin air. Or rather thin paper. All to fight his wars.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00vpwhd
macausland
 
Posts: 339
Joined: 3:17 pm

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 1:07 pm

The Ridgeway is in the news again, as it played the major supporting role for this event.

Race To The Stones 2014
http://www.racetothestones.com/

The Race to the Stones is a fully supported 100km route following in the footsteps of Romans, Vikings, farmers and traders along the iconic Ridgeway. You will pass Iron Age forts, ancient burial chambers, cross the mighty Thames and the mystical down-lands of Salisbury plain on your way to the finish line at the 3,000-year-old stone circle at Avebury.

Friends who ran it (in 14 hours 08 minutes) said what a great event it is.

Image
Boreades
 
Posts: 2081
Joined: 2:35 pm

Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 9:01 pm

macausland wrote:His 'finest' achievement was the creation of the Bank of England. He invented or rather copied the idea of creating money out of thin air. Or rather thin paper. All to fight his wars.


Not a lot of people know that the Bank of England is a private company, created by royal charter in 1694, with a licence to print money. Amazingly it was another 250 years before our US cousins decided to go the same route, when they debased their currency from a gold standard and gave another private company, the Federal Reserve, the powers to invent its own fiat money. See the Quantitative Easing.
Boreades
 
Posts: 2081
Joined: 2:35 pm

PreviousNext

Return to Index

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 119 guests