BRONZE AGE TRACK

[Stanley]

I tripped over this on my hard disk this morning. It's an aide memoir I wrote for myself ten years ago and truth to tell I'm not a long way further forward. Just shows how much there is out there to dig into.....

SOME TRIGGERS. 20 February 2003

Bronze Age track.
Assume three routes of entry for Christianity into the Isles.
First via the Romans, strongest in Civil Law areas of the South, more spasmodic in Military Rule and further North. Suffered with Roman retreat and invasion of Pagan Anglo Saxons.
Second. Gregory’s Augustine mission via Kent and then beyond riding piggyback on Kentish kings power and relations.
Third, but not chronologically, infiltration of Christian ideas from the West originating in Ireland. Clash of Celtic v. Roman versions of the faith. Roman wins in the end.
What do I know about it?
It struck me today in an idle moment that 1) I don’t know enough about the Bronze Age Track. Indeed, most of what I have written on it so far is based on assumptions, scraps of local evidence and a gut feeling that it is important. 2.) I have always thought of it as a trade route and never considered that trade routes also carry cultures and ideas. It may be time to start giving more time to this matter, firming up my assumptions and looking sideways at other possible effects of its existence.
What’s triggered this off?
I’ve always recognised that one of the key reasons for the track’s existence would be the Aire Gap at Kildwick, the most Northerly low level crossing of the Pennines. The route in was via the Ribble estuary, modern Preston and thence up the Ribble Valley as far as Whalley where it struck out to the NE, climbing out of the Ribble Valley and heading over the tops towards the Aire Gap via the hill fort/trading station at Middop, over Weets, through Barnoldswick and heading for Skipton along a fairly easy route and onwards to Kildwick. From there I know nothing but it seems obvious that the Aire Valley down through Leeds and onwards to the coast is the most likely route.
So far so good, not much wrong with that as a hypothesis. That’s been as far as I have thought for twenty years. But, and what a big but, I was struck by a thought today……

Conjecture…….
Suppose I forget about Bronze Age trade and simply look at common points on the route. Bearing in mind that it’s a fair bet that religious sites chosen by evangelising Christians, of whatever period, were very likely to be sited on old Pagan ritual sites in order to usurp the old religion and ease the entry of the new by absorbing older rituals and customs (and just because Pope Gregory was the first person we know of that wrote this strategy down doesn’t mean it was a new ploy) , what evidence is there of any chain of node points on the route?

I assume that we could find a good one in the Ribble Estuary, I don’t know enough about the area to pinpoint it but I’ll bet there is one. Ribchester, Roman occupation and crossroads? Whalley, early settlement and abbey? Barnoldswick, St Mary’s well, Mount St Mary and Gill church? Thornton, early church? Skipton, early church and trading centre? Kildwick, Lang Kirk, monastic bridge and easy route forward to Leeds, Kirkstall abbey, trading centre and then forward to the coast.
Overlay this conjecture based on the situation in the 12th C. with suspected earlier use as a route for trade from Ireland to the Baltic States and I begin to wonder about node points consisting of important Pagan sites. As we get to know more about frequency and relative ease of travel far earlier than anyone suspected previously I start to wonder about the synergy of centres of population, trade and Pagan belief. I can’t imagine that they didn’t go together.
Where does this leave me?

This is as far as I have got at the moment. I have too many irons in the fire to pursue this as rigorously as it deserves but I think the time is ripe to float this idea around and ask for opinions. I suspect that along this route there are some more nodes. Local historians who have been beavering away for years and who hold other pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we found we could pool our resources and push our knowledge forward?


SCG/20 February 2003
715 words.

[Stanley]

Now I have finished the redeployment of the LTP my mind is bending towards this subject again. I have a feeling there is a lot more to learn about the track and what it can tell us about other matters.

[Stanley]

Interesting to go back over the research and I am trying to see what I have missed. I think I might have something to add to the story.

[Stanley]

Bumped. See later information from LIDAR evidence that explains the route of the track through Barlick and how Roman occupation diverted it.

[Stanley]

This is more an indication of how my mind was working twenty years ago than hard historical evidence. However, as in the case of John Clayton's LIDAR reports it did have a place again.
So once more it's bumped. Enjoy!