First day of my big walk. Excited but nervous as I set off from the site of Tyburn Cross - modern Marble Arch - along the road which for nearly all my way today is still the A5. In relation to seeing anything Roman today, or indeed anything much pre-1800, my expectations were pretty low. 'Victorian' is just too modern for my objectives.
Pockets all wrong today to manipulate phone, camera, pen and notebook, especially if trying to eat or drink as well. And now I'm struggling to post any pictures here: tweeted ones will have to do.
Cock Tavern, Kilburn claims on a big plaque to have been licensed 1486, rebuilt 1900, but passed by too early in the morning to ask them about it.
Found two probably turnpike-era milestones in Cricklewood and Hendon, but a third one wasn't where it was supposed to be. These are protected, and I'll need to follow up.
At Edgware, I met Lachie Munro and John from Edgware Music, who told me something of the local history. A tile in the wall of St Margaret of Antioch's church might just be Roman, if so the only such thing for me to see today. Lachie works for Day's and Atkinson's Almshouses, where I'm impressed to see the organisation founded in the early 19th century still continuing the same function, and in the case of Day's Almshouses, still in the same building, built 1828.
Suddenly it got more rural, I ascended Brockley Hill, crossed the M1 and left Greater London for Hertfordshire.
Brockley Hill is conventionally meant to be the Roman station of Sulloniacis, although it's not been found, only tile works. I've seen an article that suggests Sulloniacis could have been further back, but here's where I'm staying: it makes for a shorter walk tomorrow.
