Herepath
Wide as ten men abreast
The old military road
Cuts between farms
Dips down to the river
Rises up over the moor
Rabbits lollop along it
Lambs bleat in fields beside it
Rosebay glows at sunset
Where were the wars that you marched to?
What were the victories that you won?
Here on the old Herepath
The road truly goes ever on
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
The Cheesesellers Wife 
Sounds like it could have been an old Roman road, with a width of ten men. A very interesting poem.
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The story is that the network of Herepaths are Saxon. They are far more twisty and don’t take the obvious directions that the Roman engineers took. In the West Country, I imagine they were used by Alfred the Great to move ( & possibly hide) his armies when he was in retreat from the Vikings.
This poem was written on a Herepath on Exmoor, close to a cottage we holiday at each year.
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Fascinating !! Same initial syllable as Hereward ? as in Hereward the Wake ?
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Yes!. I’ve just looked and, according to Wikpedia, in Old English the word here means “armed host”
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thanks very much !
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love the attention to sound in this poem. lovely
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Thank you!
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Nice poem Kim. There’s a herepath (also known as Green Street) that runs roughly east from the Red Lion pub in Avebury up to the Ridgeway. Worth a walk if you’re ever in the area. May we have your permission to post your poem here – http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/forum/?thread=23046
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Hi, yes you can post this poem. Can you please put a link to this blog up too.
I first walked Avebury’s Green Street in the 1980s at the start of a several day hike on the Ridgeway. I hadn’t realised that its a Herepath, though.
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Thank you Kim. It’s done.
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