To Letocetum

Setting off from Atherstone, I was soon passing through what one of my earlier authors called a colliery landscape. No collieries now of course, but many brick buildings from that era, suggesting that little along this road had developed until the late 19th century.

The curiously-named Hall End Hall in Dordon was an exception, and then the Queens Head Inn in Wilnecote. Unlike so many others, it's good to see this delightful old pub still trading, although once again I had arrived too early in the day to benefit. My lunch was taken instead at the side of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal.

As the old road is by-passed and becomes quieter towards Hints and Weeford, I found three substantial cast-iron milestones. They appeared three of a kind, so it's odd apparently only one is listed, something else to follow up.

 As I got close to Wall, I tried to follow the course of the Roman road past Lawton Grange. My map shows a public footpath here, somehow improbably crossing both the railway and the dualled A5 to continue towards Manor Farm. The people at Lawton Grange were certain that there was no longer any such path. I doubled back and picked up the path to Manor Farm on the other side of the main road. In this field is the crossing point with Icknield Street. There used to be a stone to mark the crossing: not contemporary Roman, perhaps something like the monument at High Cross. It's marked on early Ordnance Survey maps. Anyway, it's not there now.

Wall is parsimoniously named after an obvious feature that didn't require archaeologists to find it, like a big step in the field by Ashcroft Lane. This is now known to be part of later defences, like the burgus at Mancetter. Going into the village, it's then possible to see in open air some excavated earlier buildings of the Roman town of Letocetum. It was great to see these, although I was surprised to have been the only visitor, for the hour I was there on this fine spring afternoon.