Life on the Roadside in a Van - Following the Ridgeway to Hambledon Hill Iron Age Fort.

If you're able to and feel inclined you can support the channel here: buymeacoffee.com/Hometrek If you do, thank you so much 🙏 This episode sees Alf and me starting out parked up on Dorset's third highest Hill, Bulbarrow. Bulbarrow lies at the Western end of the Southern England Chalk formation. A section of the Wessex Ridgeway runs along it and travelling folk have been pulling up on Bulbarrow for thousands of years! However, the past decades have seen increasing legislation targeting travelling folk and as I type more is on the way in the form of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill. Part 4 of which effectively makes the travelling life a crime so maybe not many more folk will enjoy Bulbarrow as a park up... After a night on Bulbarrow we ventured down into the Blackmore Vale, through Belchalwell, Okeford Fitzpaine, Shillingstone and Child Okeford to arrive at our mooching destination; Hambledon Hill. Hambledon was first occupied in the early Neolithic. At that time the ramparts were obviously yet to be built but there was a pair of causewayed camps, a large long barrow and various other constructions. The site remained in use through the Bronze age, into the Iron age and there are even signs it was in use as late as the Romano British and Anglo Saxon periods. However It's most famous for being the second biggest Iron Age Hill fort in Britain. Over the years it evolved to become a multivallate countour fort. The work involved in achieving this is staggering! A trip to the fort will make you wonder how they ever did it! Much later Hambledon was again put to good use during the English Civil War. Both the King's men and the Parliamentarians were running around doing whatever they liked and taking whatever they desired from farms and villages. Forcibly conscripting, stealing...raping. This led to the birth of the Clubmen. The Clubmen were local folk who had enough of being treated like this by both sides and they decided to make a stand. In the summer of 1645 and as a part of an ongoing series of actions around 4000 took to Hambledon. It being the best defensive position in the area. However, Cromwell was nearby at the time and on hearing of the Clubmen's stand, he marched on them. Ultimately around 60 Clubmen were killed and 400 taken prisoner in a short and undisciplined skirmish. A sad time for the folk of my homeland :( Despite the defeat at Hambledon the Clubmen carried on and they made a noble stand against the atrocities of BOTH sides in the war. I'm proud of my ancestors for having a go. Nowadays Hambledon is owned by the National Trust and is both a National Nature Reserve (NNR) and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It hosts a wide variety of chalkland flora and fauna, including several rare species. It's a wonderful place for a mooch, though it's not the easiest hill to scale as you can imagine. The two pieces of music in the vlog are both by me. The first piece is an idea I've been toying with for a while and the second was recorded and made in the van specifically for that section of the vlog. Alf and me live in a van and travel the highways and byways of Britain's West Country. We lead a very simple type of life that has roots going back hundreds, nay thousands of years. I have my business tools in the back of the van and the front is set up to live in. We travel about following the wind and the work...and in my case the whim.This way of life has been squeezed by legislation over the years and right now it's happening again.The government are at present passing the PCSC bill through Parliament and this bill poses a serious threat to all who live like this. And in Britain that's a lot of us!I decided to try and document the experience of myself and others as we pass through this period. A period which also sees us still in a "state of emergency" induced by the Covid 19 pandemic. I personally am unvaccinated (I'll go into my reason for that in a future episode) and that seems set to bring it's own form of squeeze to my life too.Here are some useful links: .https://www.facebook.com/groups/32538...   / friendsfamiliesandtravellers   https://www.gypsy-traveller.org/   / drive2survivecampaign2021   https://open.spotify.com/show/3FXyRcq... #nomad #musician