Walking Through History: Series 2

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History Documentary hosted by Tony Robinson, published by Channel 4 in 2013 - English narration

[edit] Cover

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Walking Through History: Series 2 Tony Robinson embarks on more spectacular walks through historic landscapes in search of rich stories from Britain's past.

[edit] The Path to Stonehenge

Tony heads off for a 45-mile walk across Wiltshire to tell the story of life and death in the last centuries of the Stone Age. His route over chalk downlands and Salisbury plain takes him through the greatest concentration of prehistoric sites in Europe. From Avebury to Stonehenge and from spirituality to engineering, this is a journey through our ancestors' remarkable development in the latter days of the Neolithic Age. Windmill Hill near Avebury is the start of his route; with earthworks dating to 4500BC, it's one of the most ancient sites in Wiltshire. From here, Tony moves on through 2000 years of the 'New Stone Age', encountering increasingly complex burial sites and processional routes that have helped make this area both captivating and intriguing. As he heads south Tony can't escape the eccentric characters and weird phenomena that have accompanied Wiltshire's ancient history. Mysterious crop circles and unexplained underground energy sources enliven his visit, but his mind is firmly fixed on the extraordinary array of monuments in his path. That means listening to the fanciful notions of 18th-century antiquarians, which have a grain of truth at their heart, and grasping the cutting edge of scientific archaeology around Stonehenge, which is finally offering up some astounding answers.

[edit] Rome in the Lakes

It was 30 years after the Romans invaded Britain that they were ready to take on the challenge of conquering the Lake District. With the toughest landscape they had encountered in the country, peopled by a rebellious tribe, it was no small task. Two full legions - 11,000 armed men - marched north, led by two top generals. This extraordinary commitment was rewarded, and within a few years, the whole of Lakeland was under Roman control. Tony Robinson tackles the journey, but, as he discovers on this 50-mile walk from Penrith past Ullswater to Ambleside and on to the Irish Sea at Ravenglass, the Romans encountered beauty and danger in equal measure. Today the Lakes may be better known for Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter and, of course, walking holidays, but for centuries they were a hive of industry: a rich source of lead, silver and iron. The Romans carved roads through the region and built impressive forts, bath houses and a major port, enabling them to keep control and export the minerals they wanted. But the traffic was not all one-way. As Tony discovers, many of the native Britons enthusiastically adopted Roman customs.

[edit] Smuggler’s Cornwall

In the late 18th century there was a sure-fire way to earn a living along the Cornish coast: smuggling. The tiny secretive harbours, beaches and secluded coves were ideal for the infamous illicit imports: brandy for the parson, tobacco for the clerk...
It's also great walking country, as Tony discovers in his four-day trek along the stunning coastline between Plymouth and Falmouth. And the facts are extraordinary. Half of the brandy drunk in the country in the 1780s had been smuggled in illicitly through Cornwall. The smuggling business was so huge that it threatened the national economy. Tony discovers why so many people were involved in the trade, and why everyone else turned a blind eye. Along his route, visiting such beauty spots as Lantic Bay and Polperro, he encounters all sorts of reminders of the trade. He meets descendants of the smugglers, handles weapons used in battles with the revenue men, and inspects secret account books kept by the smugglers' banker. He also hears how the government gradually turned the screws on the criminals, making their lives almost impossible, and how, in a surprising twist; the Cornish themselves decided that maybe their activities were slightly immoral!