Along the centuries-old Roman road that stretches from Albert to Bapom,

we follow a pathway across the landscape of the Great War and the battlefields of the Somme.

Here we might pause and ask, is there a culture of the old front line? And what does it mean?

We often speak about pathways on this podcast, the routes by which we visit access or traverse the landscape of the old front line.

Some of these are imaginary pathways following long-gone trench lines

or linking the line of battlefield cemeteries to show the space where battle once was.

But others are actual physical pathways, roads,

and these roads which cut the landscape of, for example, the Western Front, are a very good

example of this. Many of these roads were used today to access those battlefields, but more than a century ago, they

were not just the site of fighting, but often gave their name to that fighting as well.

The Battle of the Menin Road Ridge in September 1917 in Flanders is a good example of that.

Other roads delineate a battlefield, divide it geographically, regionally, or in terms of units

that fought there as during the Great War roads and tracks were often used as battlefield

boundaries delineating where attacks were made.

And all of this interests me.

It's very much part of the layers of the landscape that we frequently talk about here.

And I think it's part of the culture of the old front line.

Something I've occasionally spoken about here.

So what is that culture? What does that mean?

Well, for me it's something I don't actually have a definitive answer to, and certainly

not all the answers. It's an idea that's grown in my mind

since beginning this podcast in 2020

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