“Deep they delved us, fair they wrought us, high they builded us; but they are gone.” – Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
This is a village, an old, busy village, with streets, moats and people. Houses of wood coated with clay and capped with thatched roofs clump in any old direction, shepherds and dogs passing by. Reeves inspect fields, villeins and free workers sweat as they thresh grain, and disagreeable types languish in the stocks. Oxen pull ploughs – but they are gone.
The thought remains. Great Palgrave is the ridges under the clouds in the above photo; the village failed in the 15th century, leaving only the bones of its roads and structures behind. Elongated bumps in old English fields almost always indicate archaeology, but some of it is much bigger.
St Mary’s Church is a treasured survivor of another lost ancient village. Houghton-on-the-Hill reached the 19th century before its population drifted elsewhere. The church dates from 1090 AD or possibly earlier, and its walls wear bricks crafted by the Romans, no doubt recycled by later peoples from a nearby ruined villa. Inside are 11th century wall paintings.
The Peddars Way goes forward, yet time drifts backwards, and the road that the Romans built 2,000 years ago points remorselessly on.
But some may call it young. A watcher rests beside it: a longbarrow that was already 1,700 years old when the legionnaires arrived.
Inside this mound are bones of Neolithic people – the earliest farmers, they who set in motion changes to the British landscape that evolved into a dazzling mosaic of semi-natural habitats, inadvertently supporting such a rich community of animals and plants.
It is a sobering thing to look at this barrow and know that the Romans and Iceni – perhaps Boudica herself – saw it, even as they must also have seen the bracken turn gold.
I can only guess at their memories of their walks, and their thoughts as the trail led onwards towards the sea.
A Walk with Wildlife 
Places with so much history are fascinating! The imagination goes wild. So many books could be written….
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Yes! These old places are a writer’s muse.
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I often wonder about what a place was like millennia before, who and what I’d see if I could travel back in time. I would love to glimpse my area before the Europeans arrived. I can only imagine the rich abundance of flora and fauna.
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I’d like to see England just after the last ice age went into retreat, and the snowy species were edging northwards while southerners were entering from across the lost land bridge which connected south-eastern England to Holland. And maybe in the interglacial before that too, when hyenas and lions were common! But even going back a century would be fascinating.
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Man left these remains to the original owners to do as they may
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Such an interesting and tantalizing post. It’s amazing to think that the Romans and Iceni are connected to us today by what they saw and we still see. The sweep of history leads us back to ourselves …
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You can almost hear their footsteps on these ancient roads.
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So beautiful post. Well shared thank you 🎉💕🙂
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Thank you Priti.
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Handsome church, with wall painting too. Must visit it one day.
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Yes, one of those Norfolk curiosities. I would liked to have gone inside but it was closed that day. The opening times are on its website.
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