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Close Your Eyes
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What Celia Sees
Never Without A Thief Or Twain
Along The Pilgrim's Way
Michael Morey's Hump
Mossing We'll Go
Up On The Ridgeway
Smugglers Road
Betteshanger Treasure
Dorset Cursus
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National Trust

The Ridgeway


it is forever England......

Songs Of The Southern English Landscape

Ridgeriders

Magnificent in their lonely wildness, the Ridgeways of Britain are humankind's earliest roads. There are six great ridges radiating from Salisbury Plain and over five thousand years they have seen the building of forts and settlements and the creation of ritual burial sites which can still be seen to this day.
Hundreds of feet above the vales the Ridgeways became long distance drove roads for sheep and cattle, smugglers routes, the haunts of highwaymen and ultimately their ghosts. These are roads rich in folk history.
You can travel them today  always on foot or horseback and often still by car or motorcycle. Though some Ridgeways have been reclassified as bridleways some remain as highways - as much real roads in the legal sense as the M1 motorway. A testament to the Ridgeway's status as Britain's most ancient thoroughfares.
The longest of them is The Great Ridgeway itself, running from East Anglia to Lyme Regis. But wherever you see the great spines on the horizon, remember that these are the arteries of Britain's heritage and civilization.
Mike Fuller
(Director "Ridgeriders" TV Series)

We had seen a number of references to Ridgeriders, scattered across a number of websites, but could find out nothing about the programme..."that'll teach you to look harder"...Oh hush!...anyway, at long last we found out all about the programme and subject matter. What a joy....history and travel........ As these things do, a page was created on one website and then moved to a much more appropriate place, our Ashley Hutchings website, and, finally we purchased the album, well, that opened up all sorts of doors, and now there is this website.......
Ancient history, it's woven into the very fabric, that is Britain. This particular pattern has been looked at, far more, from a mythological stand-point, now, I think it is perhaps time to look at it from it's historical stand-point. The peoples that followed the ancient ridgeways, existed, they lived and breathed, the same way as we do, now. They were not gods or goddesses....they were human.
Let's follow them and see where and how they travelled, visit the places they visited, and lived; for our soundtrack.....? Well, you'll see......
Alas the series is no longer being made, the Albion Band and The Ridgeriders Band are no more, but the memories live on in our hearts and minds, and as long as we have these things, so shall they and the landscape of Southern England be eternal and immortal.

The Whitehorse @ Uffington

Ridgeriders was one of Meridian Broadcasting's most successful and popular television series. It had been a hit for the ITV broadcaster for the South and South East of England since it first started to be shown in October 1994. With its unique mix of ancient history, geography and classic motorbikes it reached a wide audience of all ages and interests.
Charismatic presenter, Nick Knowles earned a loyal following over the years as he travelled the highways and byways of ancient man by motorbike, bringing to life some of the fascinating history that spans Southern England.
The series was shot entirely on location against the backdrop of some of the most beautiful countrysides in the South of England. In each programme Nick was joined by famous motorbike mad pop, soap, stage and tv personalities who were led through a fascinating history of each route, bring to life some of the fables and tales that surround the ancient sites they visited. Some of Nick's guests included Midge Ure, Neil Morrisey, Paula Hamilton, Jamie Theakston, Sean Blowers and Bear Grylls.
 
Ridgeriders was produced for Meridian Broadcasting by Hampshire based Topical Television.

Silbury Hill from West Kennet  Long Barrow

Some of the programme"purists" will perhaps note that there are a few of the links, on the right hand side, that are not a part of the Ridgeriders series, and you'd be right, but they do deal with some of the same areas of Southern England, thus we felt justified in including them in the listing, and they do add  further dimensions to the website, as you will see as we travel along.
So...without further ado....let's be off......

The Ridgeway at Overton. April 2003

Sheep on The Ridgeway

Ridgeriders Live

The Ridgeriders Band
 

The Ridgeriders Band also
and members of the

The Ridgerider Band

Some Places We're
Going To

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

The old schoolroom, Uffington
- home of Tom Brown's School Museum

 

 

 

 

 

Badbury Rings. Dorset

a sight you don't see very often on  Isle of Wight

Bembridge Fort. Isle of Wight

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