Hidden history of A1 – should Roman roads now be dug up? – Yorkshire Post Letters

From: TPM Cunniff, Town End, Ruston, Scarborough.
The statue of slave trader Edward Colston is removed from the River Avon following recent protests by the Black Lives Matter movement.The statue of slave trader Edward Colston is removed from the River Avon following recent protests by the Black Lives Matter movement.
The statue of slave trader Edward Colston is removed from the River Avon following recent protests by the Black Lives Matter movement.

MOST people don’t realise it, and especially when commuting to work on great swathes of the A1, how old that road actually is. Parts of it an astonishing 10,000 years.

The majority blissfully unaware that much of its foundations, when it was known as Ermine Street, back-breakingly improved, cobble-by-cobble, during the Roman occupation and in every likelihood by British slaves – many more of whom, during the 400 years the Romans were here, would have ended up in one of the Empire’s arenas to die horrifically for entertainment, or in slave markets across Europe and the Middle East. Slavery, a tradition the Anglo Saxons and the Vikings were just as happy to perpetuate.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Whereas our Norman invaders, at the beginning of the 12th century, were so disgusted by the practice, they used a politician’s approach, by simply exchanging the word ‘slave’ for either serf or villein, and would have done nothing to ease the conscience of William the Conqueror, who during the last years of his life, was known to have sleepless nights over the impossible-to-count northern British people he preferred to slaughter instead.

The Edward Colston stute is removed from the River Avon.The Edward Colston stute is removed from the River Avon.
The Edward Colston stute is removed from the River Avon.

The taking of British slaves would continue well beyond the 18th century and, significantly, in Edward Colston’s own lifetime.

From 1677 to 1680 alone, it was estimated that between 7,000 and 9,000 British men and women, during coastal raids by African traders, were taken to be sold in Algiers. Every day we still use Roman roads and Viking place names, and our Yorkshire cities, towns, and magnificent countryside are littered, if we took the time to think, with physical signs of the pain and suffering that generations of our ancestors were undeniably forced to endure.

Colonialism and slavery, abhorrent as they are, it would seem that over the centuries, we have ‘all’ been subjected to. I am mindful here to note that any number of wrongs never amount to a right, and this brings me (finally) to my question. Should we now dig up all the Roman roads, change all Viking place names, and tear down all the Norman castles, churches and abbeys because they might present a suddenly-acquired-politically-correct-affront to our sensibilities?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In closing, I am just as mindful to add an essential truism – choose how much we attempt to eradicate the past, by any form of censorship, vandalism, or even worse, book burning, history can be reinterpreted, but never re-written.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.