{"id":123,"date":"2018-06-11T21:35:21","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T20:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/?p=123"},"modified":"2018-06-18T17:23:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T16:23:01","slug":"gelt-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/2018\/06\/11\/gelt-woods\/","title":{"rendered":"In search of Banksy the Legionary"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unexpected mission<\/h3>\n

At our Branch meeting on Wednesday 6th<\/sup>, many kind people wished me well. One of them, however, piqued my interest in a very special way. He said I might find it interesting to visit Gelt Woods near Brampton. He had owned the woods many years ago, and told me a hair-raising story about one of his daughters being injured there. He also mentioned that the Romans had quarried wall-building stone there, and had left some interesting graffiti on one of the quarried rock surfaces. If you have the 1:25,000 OS map of Carlisle you can find it at NY531578 (and there’s another at NY526587 that I didn’t get to).<\/p>\n

A trip to Brampton<\/h3>\n

So it was that obscure rural bus timetables were investigated, and – today being only a 15-mile day on the trail – I went out there in the afternoon, the kindly bus driver unofficially letting me out just by the nearest access.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The west entrance to Gelt Woods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s lovely. Really beautiful. The little River Gelt cuts a sharp-edged trough in the pink gritstone, leaving tall straight exposures that must have made Roman quarrymen very happy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gelt River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Graffiti hunt<\/h3>\n

Sure enough, spot on the grid reference NY531578, I saw a little flight of stone steps leading up to one of the quarry faces. At first there is some rather dull, probably late 19th century lettering in the “Gazza n Lil woz ere” vein, but a little further on – guarded by a dodgy path and some seriously misanthropic midges – there’s a rather more interesting graffito that just might be Roman, though I doubt it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Probably not Roman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No, we must look even further along. But the path (hah, path? I think not) is by this stage very precarious indeed, so that fingers and gritted teeth are needed for security. And then there it is, just high enough so that I have to jam my toes into the rock a few inches above the path to be able to take even a poor photo:\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The real deal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s in fairly poor shape and in any case I had no chance of deciphering it, what with adrenalin-fuelled pupil dilation putting everything out of focus and the feverish trembling of desperately grasping digits making my whole body wobble. I’m sure, though, that I found it. Here it is in context, seen from the riverbank.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Looking along the bank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Totally accessible! Looking up from river level<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s no doubt Gelt Wood is a very special place. I’m thrilled I got the chance to visit.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer<\/h3>\n

Of course, we do need to clarify – for Sally, mainly – that the six-inch wide strip of leaf litter, held together by a few plants, that I was standing on was totally 100% safe and without risk. And even if it had collapsed, the 20 foot sheer drop to gritstone riverbank would have been entirely trouble-free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unexpected mission At our Branch meeting on Wednesday 6th, many kind people wished me well. One of them, however, piqued my interest in a very special way. He said I might find it interesting to visit Gelt Woods near Brampton. He had owned the woods many years ago, and told me a hair-raising story … Continue reading “In search of Banksy the Legionary”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordparkinsons.org.uk\/hadrian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}