To Bannaventa (and beyond)

My route today as far as Weedon was along the Old Stratford to Dunchurch road, first turnpiked in 1706, and as improved by Telford for the Holyhead Road. I was still seeing the pattern of grand cuttings through hills and banks over dales, with just here and there signs of something even older.

First was just after Geese Bridge, where the present-day road, as did the turnpike, curves to the right as it goes uphill in a cutting, rejoining the alignment of the road before the bridge. The parish boundary, which around here generally seems to follow Watling Street, went straight up the hill, which is a good sign that this was the old course of the road. Looking up the hill, it was neither accessible nor promising, so I passed that by, and carried along the A5.

Shortly afterwards, there is another well-documented separation, by Anthem (formerly called Heyford Grange). Before the junction with Furnace Lane, the platform of the older road can be seen abutting the present boundary on the right, then ought to continue along the access road to Anthem. There, Sam Burling kindly allowed me to go into their field beyond, and see what Margary had called "a fine piece of the original agger". A sign nearby warns that the site is protected, and may no longer be ploughed.

On, then, to Weedon, where the turnpike turned left to Daventry. Even on Ogilby's strip map, before the turnpike age, the Holyhead road went this way, although he also noted 'the street'. The present A5 follows Watling Street straight on, and that's my route. The difference in the road was immediately apparent: although there are marks of regradings and straightenings here and there, there is nothing of the systematic work on gradients I had seen earlier. Also, I have been able to walk on a footway all the way from Marble Arch to Weedon; from Weedon onwards I was on a grass verge. It's not that Telford & co provided a footway; they just built a highway of generous enough proportions to allow modern engineers to add the footway when it was called for.

I came to Bannaventa, knowing where to find it because it's been excavated and documented. There's nothing to see, not even a plaque.

Passing through Watford Gap, it's been very busy with Watling Street, Grand Union Canal, West Coast main line railway and M1 all squeezing through, crossing each other as their different engineering specifications determine. Despite this, where the A5 veers west to go into Kilsby, the original Watling Street is preserved as a byway. Margary thought this little more than a derelict green lane, but I was rather impressed with frequent signs of cobbling. This wouldn't be Roman, but may suggest continuing use of the way; early maps show this track co-existing with the road through Kilsby now followed by the A5. As I'm staying in Kilsby, I left the old road at a bridleway into the village, but will rejoin the byway tomorrow.