Mother of Consideration
02nd April 2017
Mother of Consideration
Making long and winding progress across the landscape are numerous ancient tracks and lanes. Sometimes they are almost hidden by the eroding effects of time, whilst in other instances they are clear and obvious. In these cases, and in a manner that seems obtuse, the tracks are overlooked as they are hidden in plain sight, their original purpose supplanted, obscured as they are now have a modern day use. The numerous Roman Roads that cross our land are a testimony to this, but also the many greenways, drovers roads that journey from north to south; east to west and the sunken lanes of the south east, that burrow through caverns of over hanging deciduous trees.
In each instance you have to wonder about their original purpose - where were they going, why were they constructed and who used them. As you reflect you then consider the shear effort and energy expended to create these tracks. Most were formed with the most rudimentary of tools. Many can be found in very wild, inhospitable locations (and this seems especially so when, high up on a Moor, or mountain and the weather is poor).
What was the motivation - What was the economic/personal/spiritual, even political need that gave the inertia breaking incentive for their creation and what thought for the effort and energy used?
Be you an assumed god, king, landed gentleman, owner of a small holding, farme, or workhand - what was the pay off from all that effort to the eventual reward achieved?
For the 'builders' remuneration, in what ever form it was received, would have been low, but the effort and energy must have been amazingly high. When you consider the miles and miles of quarried, laid and composed tracks and lanes, the tons of stone moved, shaped and positioned, their length and the engineering guile required, these routes must have an equivalence to the pyramids!
These are lanes that cut through the high moorlands, mountains, downs and coastal edges. They pierce through valleys, mountain ranges and steer, faultlessly around bog, river, lake and estuary.
Maybe we have to consider some other pressure, or motivation that might be more subtle and have a different value framework. As despite how significant the human effort, the amount of energy and resources to produce these routes, perhaps their creation is a product of a simpler life (certainly in terms of societal expectations of today). In these physically hard times, where the art of survival was more pronounced, combined with a more obvious connection to the land, the community and the environment, necessity was not only the mother of invention, but also its raison d'être and driving force. I am not sure today's spreadsheet has a column that includes this 'mother' of consideration.
Making long and winding progress across the landscape are numerous ancient tracks and lanes. Sometimes they are almost hidden by the eroding effects of time, whilst in other instances they are clear and obvious. In these cases, and in a manner that seems obtuse, the tracks are overlooked as they are hidden in plain sight, their original purpose supplanted, obscured as they are now have a modern day use. The numerous Roman Roads that cross our land are a testimony to this, but also the many greenways, drovers roads that journey from north to south; east to west and the sunken lanes of the south east, that burrow through caverns of over hanging deciduous trees.
In each instance you have to wonder about their original purpose - where were they going, why were they constructed and who used them. As you reflect you then consider the shear effort and energy expended to create these tracks. Most were formed with the most rudimentary of tools. Many can be found in very wild, inhospitable locations (and this seems especially so when, high up on a Moor, or mountain and the weather is poor).
What was the motivation - What was the economic/personal/spiritual, even political need that gave the inertia breaking incentive for their creation and what thought for the effort and energy used?
Be you an assumed god, king, landed gentleman, owner of a small holding, farme, or workhand - what was the pay off from all that effort to the eventual reward achieved?
For the 'builders' remuneration, in what ever form it was received, would have been low, but the effort and energy must have been amazingly high. When you consider the miles and miles of quarried, laid and composed tracks and lanes, the tons of stone moved, shaped and positioned, their length and the engineering guile required, these routes must have an equivalence to the pyramids!
These are lanes that cut through the high moorlands, mountains, downs and coastal edges. They pierce through valleys, mountain ranges and steer, faultlessly around bog, river, lake and estuary.
Maybe we have to consider some other pressure, or motivation that might be more subtle and have a different value framework. As despite how significant the human effort, the amount of energy and resources to produce these routes, perhaps their creation is a product of a simpler life (certainly in terms of societal expectations of today). In these physically hard times, where the art of survival was more pronounced, combined with a more obvious connection to the land, the community and the environment, necessity was not only the mother of invention, but also its raison d'être and driving force. I am not sure today's spreadsheet has a column that includes this 'mother' of consideration.