Members of the Norfolk Churches Trust were treated to an evening with Nick Crane on Friday 2nd October.
Nick gave an illustrated talk to the assembled on his latest book The Path More Travelled – The Secret History of Britain’s Footpaths.
The book is a coast-to-coast look at Britain’s historic footpaths and byways and Nick took us on a whistle-stop tour of 12,000 years of the geographer’s view of this fascinating history, in his words around 300 years a minute! He told us where these paths were, why they were there, what they were for, and why they matter.
He took us from early man and the evidence of the first footpaths and ancient footprints in the Severn estuary, how ideas came across the channel, the arrival of horses and therefore bridleways, the development of the wheel, the first streets, the arrival and departure of the Romans, the building of Hadrian’s Wall, the development of mapping, through to the Class A airfields of World War 2, and right up to the present day. A fascinating insight into the British landscape.
Before the talk there was time to mingle on the lawn with drinks at Elsing Hall, with a special thank you to our hosts for the evening, Patrick Lines and Han Yang Yap, and following the talk Nick took questions from the audience.
All in all a delightful and extremely interesting evening, thank you Nick.
Our guests took home a signed copy of Nick’s book and we have a few signed copies available to purchase from our shop.
