One of my favorite tasks in writing Black Country was deciphering the possible routes taken by Francis Asbury and his British maps in England. Mapping the travels of Francis Asbury in England quickly became an education in ancient Roman culture. It also became an educational experience in the history of England during its settlement by Vikings and the French. Some of the British maps at the time of Asbury are available, but much of what was needed had to be pieced together utilizing Roman history, Google Earth and Google Maps.
A great resource for the ancient British maps was the Antique Maps of British Isles website. One of my favorite British maps for Bedfordshire is below:
Thomas Kitchin & Thomas Jefferys Bedfordshire Map from Antique Maps of British Isles website.
England’s history, is a Roman history. The roads that make up the majority of the British maps locate in close proximity of ancient cobblestone paths created by the Roman empire at the time of Jesus. Large portions of many of these historic monoliths remain today. In my book, Black Country, there is a town to the east of the home town of Francis Asbury. Sutton Coldfield lies four miles east of Great Barr. When Francis Asbury travels from his town of Great Barr to visit his friend Edward Hand in Sutton, he will travel through a wildlife area known as Sutton Park. The Sutton Park property is the former royal hunting grounds of King Henry VIII, deeded to the people of the Birmingham area in 1528. The 2,400 acres of wetlands, heaths, marshes, and ancient woodlands are freely accessible to the public. Emerging from the sandy soil and scrubby vegetation of the heath is an ancient Roman road, 1.5 miles long and cambered in typical Roman fashion, allowing the surface water to drain from the center. On rare occasion, the west-midlands youths of Francis Asbury’s day find coins from the reigns of Constantine and Diocletian.
Although it is not the Sutton Park Roman road, below is a picture of an ancient Roman road:
The Appian Way
Example of a Roman built road
