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THE ROAD MOST TRAVELLED
BBC Countryfile Magazine
|History Special 2025
Author Rob Cowen takes a personal journey along the Great North Road, through history, place and memory
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What inspired you to write about the Great North Road?
An archaeological dig near Catterick in North Yorkshire. It was part of a huge road upgrade scheme, turning the old A1 (itself overlaid on the Roman road, Dere Street) into the A1(M). I joined the dig to write about it, but found myself kneeling there with an archaeologist, helping to uncover the skeleton of a man 2,000 years in the earth. On one side was the Roman road, excavated; on the other was the A1, hurtling with rushing wheels, cars, lorries. And it all hit me. Time, the past, the present and the future, all overlaid each other in that eerie moment. I started investigating the road, and as I did, I started discovering strange family connections: hidden stories and mysteries.
How difficult was it to walk the road?
Denne historien er fra History Special 2025-utgaven av BBC Countryfile Magazine.
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