Talk:Post Track

Access route

In an edit summary the question was asked "What is meant by access route?" I presume it means that the people who built the Sweet Track walked along the planks of the Post Track to lay the new track. It is based on this reference which says "It appears to have been the preliminary access route for the builders of the Sweet Track."— Rod ^talk 09:02, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

So, a support platform for the construction workers? I considered that it might have meant a useful route for access through an otherwise difficult passage, which would encourage its replacement. ᛭ LokiClock (talk) 10:57, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

We can speculate but I doubt if there will ever be definitive evidence. I think the 30 years prior date means that it wasn't constructed specifically to support the Sweet Track construction but was later "used" in some way to assist.— Rod ^talk 11:08, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes. That implication of the date, too, is stated in one of the sources, hence, "The track follows closely in line with the Sweet Track, and before the planks were dated it was posited that it served as a construction platform for the Sweet Track." But if they're claiming a functionality, I would like to know what they mean by access route exactly. ᛭ LokiClock (talk) 14:11, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

You could contact the Somerset Historic Environment Record team (contact details here) but they may be a little busy with the Frome Hoard at present. An alternative may be curators Curator Gill Varndell[1]? (Department contact Ben Roberts[2] user:BWR30) at the British Museum who look after the section of Sweet Track (see BM One on one colaborations/Sweet Track)— Rod ^talk 14:28, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the leads. I'll look into it if I get the time. ᛭ LokiClock (talk) 03:22, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

I imagine that "access" is in fact meant close to how I put it, given the statements in the recently added source. I will ask, still. ᛭ LokiClock (talk) 03:40, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

The following is the quoted e-mail conversation with Chris Webster from the Somerset Historic Environment Record:

C.W.:
Thank you for your enquiry. As I understand it, the initial
interpretation of the Post Track was that it was used during the
construction of the Sweet Track and was thus a temporary structure for
the construction works. However, subsequent tree-ring dating has shown
that the Post Track is likely to have been built 30 years earlier, so
the current interpretation is that the Post Track was just an earlier
version of the routeway. Hope that explains it.
LCK:
More or less; The access route in question then refers to the original
interpretation of the structure?
C.W.:
Yes, I'd assume that was the case. Several reports don't seem to have taken on-board the 30 year age difference and still talk as if the Post Track was built to construct the Sweet Track.

Thus, the sentence is an artifact of this prior interpretation and may be removed from the article. ᛭ LokiClock (talk) 12:39, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Well done for following this up - could you also look at the Sweet Track article & check that the text in that one is appropriate.— Rod ^talk 12:48, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Total length

What was the length of the track? Nowhere is even an estimate given. Abductive (reasoning) 16:40, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

Merge with "Sweet Track" article?

I suggest that this article should be merged with the Sweet Track article? Rwood128 (talk) 15:02, 5 November 2018 (UTC)