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Ancient monument

The Sweet Track

Shapwick, Somerset Levels

The oldest road in Britain, laid across a marsh in a single year.

In 1970 peat cutter Ray Sweet found a line of wooden planks in the Somerset Levels. Tree-ring dating shows they were laid in 3807 or 3806 BC.

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When
3807 BC
Where
51.1550, -2.8200
Group
Circles & monuments

Visiting

Shapwick Heath nature reserve has a replica section.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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